All Our Light
by Roselynn
Summary: She had always thought that she was good at looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, even if she couldn't see it. But this time, she wasn't sure if it existed at all. How do you save people in a world so full of brokenness, when you are no longer whole yourself? OC.
1. Smoke

**Hello!**

 **So 8 years is a long time to not post anything, but here we are! It's been a struggle for me to write these past few years. I've been on and off from it for a while now, but the idea for this fic came to me all at once, and I haven't stopped writing it since I started. I thought this would be a great opportunity to get my feet wet and start publishing things again. So, without further ado, I hope you enjoy!**

 **I do not own BNHA**

* * *

Hikari Ria had never been late to school in her life.

Until today.

What was it that people said? " _There's a first for everything"?_ Or was it: " _Bad things are blessings in disguise"?_ Something along those lines. Ria supposed that there was some truth in those sayings, though old and cliché—cultivated from lessons learned over generations, most likely.

But, at the very moment, as orange hair flew behind her catching in the wind, as a cat hissed as she passed, or as a hasty apology left her lips when she nearly hit an elderly couple with her bag,

Ria decided could care less about either of them, lessons and all.

Today was a beautiful day to ruin people's mornings, her own included.

In addition, she was fully convinced that the award for "Worst Class President in Tokyo" could have been given to her at that moment. There were quite a lot of things she had to do and think about that day, so many responsibilities she had to uphold. With the ending of the provisional exams a few days prior, she, her classmates, and her homeroom teacher were more than eager to get back into the thick of training. So, missing a day of school was not an option, even if she wanted to.

On a normal day, Ria thought that she was good at setting an example for her classmates. She was a stickler for the rules, and she made sure they all got to where they needed in time. It was her job as class president, wasn't it? To be there for her classmates and to ensure they were all fine and on track? Unfortunately, today was not a normal day.

Today, she was late.

And she was not late by a few mere minutes, mind you. By now, class had most _definitely_ started. At this point, Ria fully expected to get kicked out the minute she stepped into the room. If not, she would probably be punished with a task that was both incredibly difficult or deeply taxing. Kanazawa-sensei was a bit of a sadist, after all. However, she knew she at least had to _try_ to go.

So why _was_ she late anyway? The answer was simple: she was babysitting.

Sleep is usually just a suggestion when one lived with a baby that woke up in the middle of the night and seemed to need something every two hours.

If anything, Ria was impressed. Her nephew had so much lung power and was able to cry so loudly and for so _long_ that it really exceeded her expectations. Maybe that's what his quirk would be. She honestly had the utmost respect for all parents that loved their children.

 _Regardless_. She shook her head to herself. With all those days she spent telling her fellow classmates to be punctual, how could _she_ allow herself to be late? Ria could already hear them all making fun of her.

Eventually, she finally reached the gate of her school. Ria allowed herself a few seconds to stop and breathe, her hair a mess and sweat dripping from her forehead. Natsukashii High School was one of the smaller high schools she'd ever seen, and by now, its courtyard was empty.

It was a weird sight to see it so devoid of students that if Ria had not been in this distressing situation, she would probably enjoy the quiet. Grey eyes trained upward to look at one of classroom windows. _Her_ class's window. Kanazawa-sensei would be mad and Ria could only imagine the punishment she'd receive at training that day. She cringed at the thought. _But I'll live._

Having finally caught her breath a little, she began walking toward the front steps of the school. Her hand reached out to open the doors.

And then the world around her exploded.

* * *

That day, classes in U.A had already started when they were suddenly cancelled.

Class 1-A gathered around the television that morning, horror spread across all their faces. Midoriya could hear his classmates around him, as gasps and comments of surprise flitted around the room. Despite the noise, he could not bring himself to look away from the screen.

All he could see was fire.

" _What we know so far is that three high schools in Tokyo have been simultaneously attacked by an unknown group. All three schools have been subjected to massive explosions, causing devastating harm to the victims and the surrounding areas. We are now receiving word that the death count has risen to two hundred people in the wake of this tragic attack. Civilians are asked to stay away from the area and evacuate as heroes respond to the situation."_

"What the hell…" Kaminari said from beside him, his eyes trained on the devastation.

"Who the hell would do this?"

Ojiro's stared at the screen in unease. "Those schools…Do they sound familiar to anyone else?"

Yaoyorozu frowned sadly, "They are not particularly known for anything, though they _did_ participate in the provisional exams this year."

"She's right!" Kirishima shouted. "I remember seeing them on the rosters."

Midoriya nodded. The lump in his throat made it hard to say anything. On screen, shots of the schools were being shown. Two of them were reduced to mere rubble, so much so that it was almost hard to believe that they were once buildings and not just giant piles of rocks. The third school, lucky in comparison, only had half of the building wiped out. It was as though someone had taken a flaming wrecking ball to the structure, then gave up on the task of demolishing it. Deep green eyes narrowed seriously at the screen, as victims started to come into view. People were running out of the scene, some of them covered in flames. Others were heavily injured and bleeding and needed medical attention immediately.

These people were the lucky ones. On screen, amidst the wreckage and screaming, one fact glared at Class A and sent a shiver down Midoriya's spine.

There weren't a lot of victims seen on TV, which could only mean they were under the rubble.

Suddenly, the front door of their complex opened. Only then did Midoriya allow himself to tear his gaze from the screen. Seeming to get the same idea, everyone immediately turned towards the sound as well, tense.

"Sensei!" Some of them exclaimed as Aizawa stepped in. Their homeroom teacher was silent for a moment, almost as though he hadn't heard them at all. Then, he closed the door behind him, clicking it locked.

"Is everyone here?" he asked, his voice calm. Iida stood from his seat abruptly, as if he were being asked directly.

"Yes!" he swiftly raised his arm to give a stiff salute. "Asui and Jiro are calling their families in other rooms, and everyone else is here with us."

Aizawa nodded and after scanning the room to give a quick headcount, he slid open a hidden panel near the front door. "Good."

Suddenly, a siren blared inside the dorm. Everyone looked around as the steel plates lowered in front of all the windows, making the room slightly darker. Metal bars appeared on the front of each door, effectively blocking their entryways.

"What's happening?" Asui said, bursting into the room, her phone in hand.

"Are we under attack?" Jiro followed, coming in behind her. Aizawa raised his hand reassuringly and shook his head.

"This is to keep you all safe," he said once the sirens stopped. "U.A. is officially on lockdown. No one goes in or out until further notice."

"But sensei," Sero asked, "Couldn't someone with a teleporting quirk come in anyway?"

"Or perhaps a quirk that allowed one to squeeze in through the tiniest of spaces?" Iida added. Aizawa shook his head and showed them his phone, where a series of switches and alerts were displayed.

"Since the USJ attack and the training camp incident, U.A. has taken measures to improve security. As soon as the lockdown feature is turned on, an alarm will alert us if anyone but Class 1-A comes inside. The cameras around the complex are constantly scanning the rooms for movement, heat signatures, and abnormal occurrences."

Mineta perked up, suddenly interested. "A-All the rooms, sensei?"

He shrank back as a dark aura enveloped his teacher, scarf floating threateningly. Mineta could have sworn Aizawa-sensei's eyes were glowing red. "The bathrooms offer a different motion sensor without a camera, so no. Do you have any more questions?"

A purple-balled head sank down in disappointment. "N-no, sensei."

"I say we should just keep the security system off," Bakugo quipped, his eyes glinting. "I'll fight them all!"

Kirishima rested his head on his palm. "Well yeah, but you wouldn't be able to fight anyway because you don't have your provisional license yet, right?

"Hmm, that's a good point," Kaminari agreed, nodding sagely. Bakugo whirled to look at both of them. "If anything, you'll have to be the one to go get help, like Iida did before."

"Shut up, Shitty Hair and Phone Charger!" he snarled, "I'll take both of you on right now!"

"That's enough," Aizawa said, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly. His eyes landed on the television. Most of the class had already turned their attention back to it.

"I see you've all been keeping tabs on the news," he commented.

"Those schools…" Ashido started. "They…"

"They all had hero training programs." Aizawa stated as he walked closer towards the television and narrowed his eyes at the damage. "Which is _why_ classes have been suspended until further notice, and why we're all being instructed to stay here until everything blows over."

"All those people…" Hagakure said sadly. "It hasn't even been an hour yet, and the death toll is already very high."

"Is there any news about who is doing this yet? Is it the League of Villains?" Uraraka asked.

"I know just as much as you guys do," their sensei answered calmly, "We won't know until we hear more reports about it, but it's possible."

Midoriya's hands tightened into fists. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Follow instructions." Aizawa said without missing a beat. "And prepare for a fight. If they're targeting hero schools, then U.A. could be one of their next targets."

* * *

Ria stirred in her sleep, burying her face deeper into her pillow. It was a Saturday, and she had a rare day off from her extracurricular activities, which meant that she didn't need to get up early. She smiled at the thought. _I could stay here forever._

Suddenly, the door to her room opened, banging loudly against the wall. _Or not_ , she thought in irritation as she heard soft footsteps running towards her. Two tiny hands gripped her blanket, but Ria grabbed the other end before it could be yanked away from her.

" _Onee-chan!"_ her sister whined, _"Mom said to wake up!"_

" _It is Saturday, Hana."_ Ria said, voice still thick from sleep. Huffing, she turned over to face away from her sister. _"Leave me alone."_

The was a sound of rustled clothing, and she could only imagine that her sister now had her arms crossed over her chest. Ria could feel her eyes boring into the back of her head and already knew that Hana had an enormous pout on her face.

" _But it's my birthday!"_ Hana complained again, not giving up.

" _Five more minutes,"_ Ria promised.

" _That's what you said last time, and then you slept for an hour."_

" _I mean it this time."_

A whine came out of her sister's mouth, small feet stomping on the ground in childish frustration. Ria sighed. In her half-awake state, she had no patience to deal with a temper tantrum. Just as she was about to look back at her, silence filled the room again. For a moment, Ria wondered if Hana had given up when all of a sudden, she felt one side of her bed depress. Her sister climbed up to stand next to her.

" _Wake up!"_ Hana then began to jump on top of her. Ria let out a yelp of surprise and shielded her face from the onslaught of little girl weight.

" _Hana!"_ Ria yelled, _"Stop it!"_

" _Wake up, Onee-chan! Wake up! We're going to the Universal Studios today!"_

" _What are you—Ow! Mom and dad aren't even going to be here—"_ her sister then resorted to smacking her in the face with a stuffed animal.

" _Aki-nee and Kosei-san are taking us!"_

" _Ouch! Stop jumping on me!"_ Ria barked before grabbing the stuffed toy from her hands and throwing it on the ground.

" _Not until you wake up!"_ Hana answered, laughing at her now. _"Please! They told me we could go to Bani Café and buy me a birthday cake too and-" Ria paused._

" _Wait, where?"_ She asked. Something in her mind clicked.

Her sister continued to jump on her. _"Bani Café! That place where we saw the cake with a pink rabbit on it!"_

 _Bani Café..._ Ria's heart began to pound loudly in her chest, her eyes opening now. They landed on her sister who continued to jump on her enthusiastically. Her mind became painfully alert of her surroundings.

" _Onee-chan! Get up already! It's been five minutes—"_

" _What day is it?"_

 _Hana laughed, "I already told you, silly! It's my sixth birthday!"_

And then Ria felt her blood go cold. The gears in her head began turning with realization as she reached up and grabbed her sister's hand. Hana squirmed as she was pulled in for a hug, clearly not happy with being held so tightly.

" _Onee-chan,"_ she complained.

" _Let's not go,"_ Ria whispered shakily, _"Let's just stay here and make a birthday cake."_

" _What do you mean? I don't want to make a cake. I want to go to Bani Café!"_ Ria closed her eyes tightly at the words. Her body began to shake. Hana didn't seem to notice as she continued to shift in her sister's arms.

" _We can't go there today,"_ Ria urged, her voice breaking. _"If we go, you, Aki-nee, Kosei-san…You'll all—"_

" _But we HAVE to go! It's my birthday, so I get to decide!"_ Hana was facing her now and she began pulling at Ria's deep amber hair.

Ria took in her sister's appearance. She took in her brown hair and tiny fingers, her voice, and her tiny shirt with the elephant on it. She rested her forehead on Hana's as matching grey eyes stared into her own curiously. That was when she let the tears fall.

" _Why are you crying, Onee-chan? It's a happy day! C'mon, it's my birthday, so wake up!"_

Her sister's face began to blur now, and Ria's body began to grow heavier. She held on tighter.

" _Wake up, Onee-chan!"_

 _Please,_ she begged to anyone who might be listening. _Please just give me a little more time with her._

" _Wake up!"_

" _Onee-chan, wake up!"_

 _Wake up_

* * *

"Iincho! _Wake up_!"

A gasp escaped her lips as her eyes fluttered open in shock. Ria panted, chest heaving and heart pounding as her mind struggled to keep up with the events around her. She could hear the chaos—all the screaming, running, crying, and other panicked noises waking her up in an instant. Smoke filled her lungs, and she rolled over to her side, coughing hard. The hand that grasped her shoulder moved to pat her on the back gently.

Her eyes focused on the faces in front of her, taking in mussed overly-waxed blue hair from one person, then green hair and brown eyes from the other.

"Hibiki? Nami?" she said hoarsely. They nodded at her, visibly relieved.

Nami rubbed the tears out of her eyes "Thank God! I thought you were dead!"

"No way!" Hibiki snorted, "There's no way something like this could take down _our_ class president!"

Ria allowed him help her sit up, groaning as every muscle in her body throbbed. She raised a hand to touch the sticky substance on her forehead.

 _Blood_. She must have hit her head pretty hard. _That explains why it hurts so much._

"What happened?" she asked, finally taking her surroundings in.

Her eyes widened in horror.

The school building didn't even look like a school anymore. Half of it was gone. The right wing looked worse for wear, but it was still _standing_. The entire left wing, however, had been reduced to nothing more but rubble and fire. Ria's heart dropped.

"That's the entire hero department!" She blurted out, head beginning to spin.

"We were in class," Nami had said mournfully, "I left the room to use the bathroom, and the next thing I knew, I got knocked back by this huge explosion. It was insane. The whole left wing just came crashing down."

Ria shook her head in disbelief before bowing down to rest it in her hands.

"What about you, Hibiki?" she asked wearily.

Hibiki scratched the back of his neck, "I was late, so Kanazawa-sensei made me go get our supplies for today's training session from the teacher's lounge."

"I was late too," Ria confessed, sighing.

"That's one hell of a first time to be late, Iincho."

"And the general department?" Ria questioned, ignoring his remark. She shifted her eyes towards the right wing of their school. People were looking out through the windows.

"It doesn't look like it blew up there. Most people there are being told to evacuate, but I think the upperclassmen on the higher floors are stuck."

Ria nodded, taking all the information in. She began looking around again, her mind now more alert.

"Have you seen anyone else from class or from the other hero classes?"

Hibiki shook his head, "Nami found me. We went looking for people as soon as we could, but you were the first person whose thoughts I could hear."

Slowly, Ria stood up, making sure nothing was broken. Her head throbbed as she moved, but she pushed the pain back. Around her, people were running frantically towards the front gate. Gauging their panicked reactions, she realized that majority of them were probably from the general department. Many were screaming, some in pain and in fear. It was chaos.

"Stay alert," she said, cautious. "We don't know what could happen."

Nami stood up right away, but Ria paused when she saw the wince on Hibiki's face as he got up.

"What the hell is going on?" Nami wondered aloud, and Ria's eyes narrowed as she scanned the rubble.

"This wasn't an accident," she surmised shortly, "Schools don't simply explode, and when they do, they don't reduce an entire wing to rubble."

"We need to call the pros then."

"They're coming."

"How do you know?"

"It's probably the first thing they all did." Ria nodded her head towards all the students in the general department, some of whom were stuck on the higher floors. Many of them held phones to their ears. She shot Hibiki a stern look, "Where are you injured?"

He froze, hesitation passing on his face as Nami looked at them in confusion. Finally, Hibiki sighed and shot them a sheepish smile.

"Figures that you would notice, Iincho," he chuckled nervously. Pulling up his shirt, he revealed a terrible wound in his stomach. It was covered with some sort of cloth, but the blood was seeping through it. Nami gasped while Ria narrowed her eyes at him.

"You need to get to a hospital," she ordered.

"No."

"Hibiki, that looks serious. You could be—"

"With all due respect, Prez. I appreciate your concern, but if you two get to stay here and help people while your head's all banged up and Nami's wrist is broken—"

Nami furrowed her brows "Hey! Don't read my mind!"

"—Then I get to stay here and help you." He smirked, "And you're not going to stop me."

Ria glared at him, unimpressed and _clearly_ not happy with the idea. He looked back at her and grinned stupidly as they stared each other down.

"Careful now," he told her, "Stare at me more and you _might_ just fall in love with me."

Nami rolled her eyes at him and made a gagging noise. Eventually, Ria sighed. "We're wasting time here. Fine, stay. But if you feel like collapsing, I will personally throw you into the first ambulance I see. You're no use to us dead."

Hibiki nodded, flashing her another wide grin. "You got it, Iincho."

* * *

For all her words against him, Hibiki's quirk was critical in helping them find people. Having a telekinetic quirk like his meant that he could listen in on people's minds and hear them through the rubble. Nami, on the other hand, could shapeshift her arms into anything she wanted, which meant she could move survivors easier by making stretchers. They had found the school nurse soon enough and had decided to set up a temporary medical bay in the auditorium for people who were not strong enough to leave on foot.

The time seemed to wind on as they worked, but in reality, not much time had actually passed at all. There were no pros yet.

"Be careful when you move debris! We don't know how stable this area is. Some of the concrete could fall further down into anyone that's buried," Ria shouted as she emptied what was left of the fire extinguisher she held onto an open flame. It died down, and she tossed the tool behind her. "And let me know if you find anyone from our class."

"Roger that!" Hibiki said, focusing on the rocks. Nami was walking back from the auditorium, one arm in the shape of a stretcher. Her other arm stayed in its normal form, bandaged now at the wrist. She had just come back from assisting the trapped general education students evacuate. This was probably the only instance that she had ever been thankful for the climbing ropes they used in P.E.

Something caught her attention, and Nami turned her head towards an area by the bottom of the rubble. Through the rocks, there was tiny glimmer. That's all it was. There were a hundred things she needed to be doing, a hundred other things she had to think about. How did glittering underneath the rubble distract her? She had no real answer to that, and yet a shudder ran through her spine.

And then something dawned on her. She bolted towards it.

"Ria-chan!" she yelled out suddenly, panicked. She began to dig frantically at where she thought she saw the glimmer, and Ria jogged over to her.

"What's wrong? Did you see anybody here?" Hibiki asked as he reached them.

"I could have sworn I saw something!" Nami said, turning her hand into an excavation shovel to scoop out the rocks. After a bit of digging, she unearthed a hand. She squeezed it and pulled gently.

The problem was that it wasn't attached to a body.

"Shit!" Hibiki yelled when he saw it. On reflex, Nami screamed and let it fall to the ground as Ria's fists tightened and bunched in her skirt.

"Whoever this belonged to must have been fairly near to the explosion," she surmised grimly.

"That is messed up," Hibiki noted, staring at it. She shook her head in somber agreement.

"Nami?" Ria called, putting her hand on her classmate's shoulder when she realized that her friend had suddenly grown quiet.

"That bracelet…" Nami breathed out, "It's Kanazawa-sensei's."

Hibiki's face contorted. "What?"

Nami's body began to tremble. "I'd never seen her wear it before, so I asked her about it this morning. She said her fiancé gave it to her for their anniversary."

"No way," Hibiki said. He began to dig again, faster this time, unearthing rock after rock as fast he could.

Ria joined him, and they each ignored the sting of some of the sharper, more jagged pieces digging against their hands. She helped him carry out a heavy slab of concrete. "Are you sure?"

Nami didn't answer, her eyes beginning to form tears as she stared at the amputated hand in shock.

Ria turned away from her. "Can you hear her?" she asked Hibiki.

"Of course, I can't! But that could just mean she's passed out. I mean, she lost a fucking _hand_! And if she's not dreaming, I can't find her."

They dug until they caught site of some purple fabric. Upon seeing it, Nami sprung up and began to help them. They all knew that color and style. All three of them saw it every day when its wearer came into their classroom. Nami had always thought that Kanazawa-sensei's hero costume was pretty.

And finally, they found her. Except, she wasn't Kanazawa-sensei anymore.

Her body had been crushed by the debris, limbs bending at wrong angles. Her blood was on every stone beneath her, and her face… It didn't even look the same, having been broken in various places by the rubble. Her mouth hung open, and it was almost as though she was about to yell at them, like she always did. And yet, her eyes were wide and unseeing.

Ria heard Nami scream, but the sound seemed so far away. Hibiki had stumbled a few feet from them to throw up.

As for Ria, she felt numb. She didn't notice the tears in her eyes until she felt them drip down her neck. She reached out a hand and placed it over her teacher's eyes, closing them. Of course there would be casualties. She knew that.

But Kanazawa sensei…Their _homeroom_ teacher… The woman that had trained them every single day, berated them, _believed_ in them.

Now she was dead.

Ria looked over at the expanse of rubble in front of her, her chest tightening as more revelations revealed themselves in her mind. Freshmen were situated at the second floor, which meant that there were still two more floors above them for the upperclassmen. At the bottom of the rubble, with all the weight pressing over her, Kanazawa-sensei didn't stand a chance.

Which meant her classmates didn't either.

"Hibiki," Ria's voice was weak, and he didn't hear her. He was pounding his fist on the rocks, while Nami sobbed loudly.

"Hibiki!" she tried again, furiously wiping the tears from her face, " _Hibiki!"_

He faced her suddenly, eyes wild and filled with tears. "What?! What is it, Iincho? Our teacher is dead. She's _fucking_ gone. What the hell do we do now?"

She paused momentarily at his outburst and swallowed. "Scan this area."

"What?"

"Scan this area," she repeated, her grey eyes meeting his dark ones.

"Iincho—"

"Now isn't the time to cry," she said, getting up. Part of her wondered if she was talking to herself instead of her classmates. Nami's head lifted a fraction to look at her.

Ria tilted her head up to look at the sky, eyes focusing on one of the white clouds. "If Kanazawa-sensei was in our classroom at the time of the explosion, and she was here—"

"—Then the rest of our class could be here too." Nami finished quietly, her eyes lighting up.

 _If they're alive,_ Ria mentally smacked herself for the thought and chose to keep it to herself. Instead, she nodded, finally looking at both of them seriously.

"We need to prioritize saving the victims," was all she could say.

"Right," Hibiki stared at Ria for a long while, his face passing through various emotions in the span of a few seconds. Finally, he got up and furiously wiped his face on his sleeve, "Let's get to work then."

"We're not giving up," she told both of them. "We're going to keep going because it is what we're supposed to do. At this moment, while the pros are coming, we are not students, we're—"

"Well, this is a surprise," a voice behind them said. All three of them turned towards the gate—their only exit—to find it crowded by a mob of people. "They told us all the living ones would be under the rubble."

"Who are you supposed to be?" Hibiki asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Well you see," the same guy said, his fingers turning into knives, "We were ordered to help dig up the bodies."

Nami rose from where she was sitting. She took a step forward, and Ria held an arm up to block her from going any nearer. They exchanged glances. Ria scanned the crowd, taking in the weapons that they held in their hands and the hostility with which they directed towards them.

"You don't have to worry now," another one of them said, "Come on over here so that we can help."

"Bullshit," Hibiki snarled. He stared at them in contempt, focusing on one of the men in the center. "How stupid do you think we are?" The man with the knives for fingers smirked.

"I was hoping you'd be really stupid, to be honest. It would be more fun that way. Fine, you want the truth?" He raised his arms to gesture at the damage in front of him. "We're here to kill whoever is left alive from the explosions."

"Why?" Hibiki grit his teeth. "What's the fuck is the point of killing the ones that are already helpless?"

The villain absently twirled a knife in his hand. "We're trying to send a message. Can't have any survivors."

"Is that so?" Ria asked, her voice low. Hibiki and Nami turned their heads towards her. She ignored their stares and gestured towards the fallen building behind her. "So I assume that you are the ones that did this then? Do you have a name or should I simply call you Villain?"

A wicked smile creeped onto the man's face. Ria's fingers twitched when she saw the dangerous glint in his eyes.

"You can call me Saber. And _we_ didn't do this," he said slowly, dragging his tongue along one of his knives. "But a few of our friends did."

Nami chimed in. "Assholes! There were innocent people here, people who had families, friends, lives! How the hell could you do this?"

In the blink of an eye, a knife shot out and flew past Nami, slicing her in the cheek. She brought her hand up to her face in alarm.

"I don't know who you think we are, Girly, but there are three things you need to know," he said, keeping three finger knives up for them to see. "One is that you don't talk to us like that."

Another knife shot out. This time, it stopped right at Hibiki's feet, "Two, is that you aren't innocent. You're all training to be able to kill us one day. We're just getting a head-start before you can."

"And three," He threw three more knives, "Is that you're all going to die today."

Each knife flew towards each of their faces this time. Hibiki and Nami readied themselves to dodge them, but before they could, two orbs of light shot out and hit each knife, propelling them from their targets.

A large ray of light shot out from the sky, landing down on Ria, bathing her entire body in brightness and warmth. She held a knife out in front of her, having caught it.

"Alright," Ria said, her voice deadly, "Change of plans. Nami and Hibiki, rescue any stray survivors you can into the auditorium and guard it. Keep everyone there until the pros come."

"We are not leaving you alone," Nami answered, keeping her eyes glued to the mob at the gate. "You need us here."

"Other people need you more. Hibiki may be standing, but he was too injured to stay at all, let alone fight. That means _you_ need to go protect the survivors until the pros come, and you need to take him with you or else he'll be vulnerable when someone comes after him," Ria said calmly and with authority, "Take care of any strays that slip through my defenses. I'll be fine."

"Besides, we won't be leaving her at a complete disadvantage," Hibiki said, mustering a tense smirk. He cupped his hands on either side of his mouth, calling out to the crowd in front of them, "Hey! What are your quirks?"

He was met with mocking laughter. Someone piped up, "Like we'd fucking tell you!"

Hibiki smirked, "You already did."

Pointing to each one of them, he stared at them in intense focus. "Alright Iincho, from left to right: Body enlargement, Poison fog, Mirror-image duplication, Secret arm, Slippery Slime, Knife fingers, Binding Cloth—"

"What the hell… How did you—" He ignored the yell from the crowd and continued listing down their quirks.

"—Aaand finally…Banana Peel Emitter? That one's new." Hibiki clasped his hands behind his head and began to walk away, "Come on, Nami. Iincho, don't slip on any banana peels."

"Hibiki," Ria said, putting a hand on his shoulder as he passed her to grab Nami, "Thank you…for having my back."

She let go and stepped forward, her back to him now. He paused for a second and eyed her thoughtfully. "Don't die."

"You too."

And with that, they began to take their leave. One villain stepped forward to fire something at them.

"Where do you think you're g—" A beam of light shot out and hit him square in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Ria stepped away from the mount of rubble, her palms glowing with light, "You don't need to worry about them."

Slowly, they began to surround her as Saber shot her a menacing glare. "You must have a death wish, Girly. This is the stupidest case of underestimation I've ever seen."

She narrowed her eyes at them, "We'll see."

"Your funeral," the villain shrugged, "Get her."

An eruption of light engulfed them all.

* * *

The streets were empty as Halley Comet flew above them at top speed. She adjusted her stance on her rock and peered down. She knew that the residents of the area had been asked to evacuate, but it was still alarming to see. Far behind her was a crowd of ambulances and hero colleagues. She made sure that help would be on the way, but they didn't know the shortest ways to get there. _She_ did.

Today was supposed to be a normal day. She sent her kid to school, dropped the other one off, visited her husband for breakfast, then left for work.

And then three schools blew up.

She left the minute she heard the news. Comet—as many of her fellow heroes called her—was one of the first heroes that asked which schools needed help. She had never gotten into her costume as fast as she had that day, yanking it on even as she had the phone to her ear.

Her jaw tightened. _Who the hell would do this to a bunch of kids?_ They were young, and they still had more life in them to live. _The world gets worse with every minute that passes._

In the distance, she could see the school. It wouldn't take long now.

All of a sudden, a huge flash of light engulfed the entirety of the courtyard.

Normal people would have been afraid. It did, after all, look like another explosion. Perhaps a second attack on the same school? Maybe they had gone to blow up the other half of the building after all?

But Comet knew that light, and for a moment, she allowed herself to let out the giant breath of air she didn't know she was holding. She blinked away the tears of relief as she flew past a news helicopter.

When she finally got close enough, she sent boulders flying down onto the school courtyard.

* * *

As blinding light filled the courtyard, Ria rushed forward and kicked the villain nearest to her in the stomach. The blinding wouldn't last long, she knew. She'd have to work fast. Her two hands swung out in front of her diagonally, shooting two beams at the villains at her sides.

She sidestepped as an arm tried to grab her, only to jump away when the same guy grew another arm to try to grasp at her again. An orb of light attached to her hand, she ducked underneath the punch he threw at her and moved to strike him in the chin with her palm, knocking him out.

Fighting alone in an unfair, outnumbered match had its perks. Because they were surrounding her, it was fairly hard for them to run at her without hitting each other with their attacks. Ria knew better than to let anyone touch her. Every movement she made was with purpose. Never was she in one place for too long. _Knock them out as quickly as possible, then move on to the next,_ she recited to herself.

Maybe she could do this.

Maybe.

Ria slid across the ground to kick a guy in the knee. _Still though_ …

She groaned as she slipped on a banana peel and landed on her back. _I can only keep this up for so long_. The knife that she had snatched earlier flew at a woman who tried to rush at her, burying itself in her shoulder. Ria was aiming for the chest. _Oh well._

"Getting tired, little girl?" One of the villains said. _Poison gas,_ she remembered immediately. "Why don't you take a little nap?"

Ria sucked in a breath and held it before a mist of purple smoke began to enveloped her. She hurled an orb of light at him, then at a man to her left.

Gritting her teeth at the lack of oxygen she was taking in, she grabbed the next villain's hand and twisted his arm back until she heard a _pop_ in his shoulder. He let out a howl of pain, but she couldn't bring herself to care as she kicked his face in the ground.

She reached around his side to grab the weapon he was using. A crowbar, huh?

Pushing up on her legs, Ria ran until she could no longer see any traces of poisonous gas around. She hit the nearest villain with her crowbar, ignoring the _crack_ of bone.

How long had she been fighting at this point? It could have been mere minutes, or it could have been hours. She sprinted forward again. Another hit with her crowbar went to the man that tried to sneak up behind her, while she sent a beam of light to the woman that ran towards the auditorium.

Suddenly, a stabbing pain manifested in her lungs. Ria coughed violently. She shot another beam of light in the direction of three men coming towards her. Jumping up immediately, she managed to dodge a barrage of glass shards being shot her way.

Another beam of light, aimed to the villains in front of her, tore out from her palms before she sank down to one knee, wheezing out a breath. _What…?_

"Looks like some of my gas got you, after all," came a familiar voice to her side. _Poison Gas_ , Ria named him. She jerked out of the way as a hand reached out and grabbed her arm, "What a shame. You were actually doing pretty well."

"What did you do to me?" she demanded, sending another beam of light towards him and the two others next to him. She successfully separated herself from his reaching grasp, but she grit her teeth when he managed to dodge her attack.

"Not much, unfortunately," he answered, "But it seems you've inhaled enough to weaken your abilities."

Ria forced herself up on shaky legs, "I won't let you win."

"It looks like we already have," Saber said almost casually as he approached her. A beam of light shot towards him, and he evaded it easily. Ria hacked out a cough.

"The more you use your quirk, the harder it will be to breathe," Poison Gas said. "Spare yourself the pain and surrender."

"I don't need my quirk to fight you," she said, rushing towards him with painfully held breath. A fist covered with purple smog grazed the side of her face as she deftly moved out of its path.

Her knee came into contact with his gut.

"Fair enough," Saber said, his voice low and cold. "But you _do_ need it to protect them."

And suddenly, he sprinted away from her, a few men following him. Ria didn't need to look to see where they were running. _The auditorium_ , her mind screamed as she began to run after him.

"I won't let you—" A body blocked itself in front of her, cutting off her view. She quickly jumped back when Poison Gas tried to grasp her neck with a clawed hand shrouded in smoke.

"Have you forgotten me?" he asked as he swiped at her again. Ria jumped flipped back to kick him in the face, sucking in large gasps of air when she was far enough away.

"I don't have time for you," she grunted, sending multiple beams of light at him. A pang of relief hit her when he failed to dodge one of them, hitting him square in the head. As he fell from the impact of her attack, however, so did she. Her lungs burned. _This isn't good._

"Nami!" she yelled, catching sight of her friends. Hibiki was helping a survivor into the auditorium, the bleeding in his stomach showing through his shirt now whilst Nami began fighting off the crowd of villains that came her way.

Ria rolled out of the way as someone tried to crush her with a giant slab of concrete he'd been carrying.

"Get out of my way!" she ground out, swinging her crowbar at his neck.

There were too many of them. Too many were slipping past her towards the auditorium. She needed to do something or else—

She braced herself for another attack as another villain rushed at her, but before she could even touch him, a boulder fell from the sky and landed on his back.

Ria gasped as she caught sight of the fire that engulfed the boulder. Her gaze shifted to the sky, and she grinned as a familiar figure arrived overhead.

" _Mama!"_

* * *

" _We are now looking in at Natsukashii High School, one of the schools that has been attacked in the series of bombings that happened today,"_ a reporter recounted from inside a helicopter, _"As you can see, the damage is absolutely devastating. Half of the building has been reduced to nothing. Currently, no heroes have arrived at the scene yet, but we are getting reports that both heroic and medical help is on the way."_

Class 1-A continued to gather at the living room in front of the television, all of them dressed in their hero costumes now. Some time had passed since Aizawa-sensei had come and still, nothing had happened. He would leave the room to take phone calls from time to time, but otherwise, he would come back without many updates for them. As far as they knew, U.A. was not under attack. The lockdown, however, was still up.

Eventually, they had all simply returned to the living room to watch what was happening. The reporter seemed distracted by something down below.

" _Hold on,"_ she said suddenly, " _Is that…? Zoom into the school. Ladies and gentlemen, an unidentified group has suddenly appeared in front of the school gates! Who could they be?"_

"You've got to be kidding me," Sato breathed in disbelief, seeing the weapons and demeanor of the crowd that had gathered, "Villains _?"_

Ashido shuddered, "What are they doing there? Most of the students left are either under the rubble or have run away from the building by now."

Uraraka shook her head in shock. They all watched as students by the rubble conversed with the villains.

Finally, a girl with orange hair stepped forward from her group and approached the crowd, while her two companions ran off out of frame. Her palms glowed with light. Villains began to surround her on all sides.

"Is she seriously going to take them all on by herself?" Sero asked in disbelief.

"That's suicide!"

The screen suddenly went white, blocking their view of any action. " _Unbelievable! A bright light has overcome the courtyard of the school. Could this be another explosion?"_

When the light finally faded, they watched as the girl rushed forward, taking advantage of the momentary blindness that she had given her opponents. She knocked out three at once and quickly moved on to the next ones. They watched as she sent out orbs of light and dodged attacks that came her way. Kaminari leaned forward in surprise.

"I mean, she looks like she's doing okay…"

"Forget that! Look at all the backflips she's doing in her skirt!"

Nobody flinched when loud _smack_ rung out in the room.

"They made a mistake," Todoroki observed after a while.

Uraraka glanced over to him. "A mistake?"

"He's right," Ojiro said, eye narrowing at the evens on-screen.

Todoroki leaned back onto the sofa, his arms crossed. "Back when they attacked us at USJ, the villains made the mistake of underestimating us." He nodded towards the screen.

"It's why I was able to fight them off on my own," Ojiro added with a nod. "They did the same thing to us and sent in weak villains."

"I don't think they expected anyone to be alive," Midoriya commented, his brows furrowing. He frowned at the screen, watching the fight and the girl seemed to be unfazed by the attacks that were thrown at her.

 _Yes, but…_ "She's outnumbered."

They watched for a few more minutes before Jiro jerked in her seat suddenly. She let out a gasp, bringing everyone's attention to her.

"Guys! Look at this video!" She said, turning up the volume on her phone. "It's being shared _everywhere_!"

Anyone that was near enough crowded around her until they could all see the screen of her phone. Jiro unplugged her earphone jack from the device as a man in a black cloak appeared in front of the camera. He wore a blue mask that appeared old and dirtied, gold inscription etched around the edges of the face. The eyes were blacked out, while heavy tears of gold were painted underneath them.

" _Citizens of Japan, the age of heroes is over. You have been warned countless of times, and yet you continue to cling to your stubbornness and pride."_

"Who is this guy?"

"Shhh!"

" _Heroes are nothing more but individuals that seek fame and fortune. They seek out those down on their luck, people with families and friends. They punish the oppressed by killing them or throwing them in jails. The hero killer Stain's ideals have opened our eyes to the truth. Heroes are not what they appear to be."_

Aizawa shifted closer and listened intently. Something in his expression changed, but none of his students took notice of it. On Jiro's phone, pictures of the devastated schools flashed before them.

" _Today, we show you that we will be silent no longer. We declare war on heroes."_ Midoriya's eyes widened as everyone around murmured and gasped. He exchanged a worried glance with Iida before turning back towards the screen.

" _For our first act of retaliation, we have begun to target the most dangerous and despicable establishments of mankind: hero schools. You brainwash these kids and train them to kill us, and because of your arrogance, they will pay. The time for mercy is behind us. Close down all hero schools or watch your children die. Parents, I urge you; if you want your children to have a future, release them from this despicable system. Heed these words. This is not the end."_

The screen turned black, signaling the end of the video. For a while, silence swept over the room. Aizawa took each reaction in, observing. On the television, the fighting between the girl and the villains continued.

"So what did you think about the video?" their teacher asked casually. So casually, in fact, that you would think that they were in the classroom going over a training video.

"Who the fuck _was_ that?" Kaminari breathed out.

"They're going to be targeting hero schools now?" Hagakura stuttered, "So we're going to be in constant danger?"

Mineta began pulling balls from his head in fear. "U.A's the biggest hero school in Japan! They're sure to target us again!"

A crackle sounded in the room. Everyone turned their attention towards Bakugo who held his hands out, palms already sparking.

"Bullshit! Let them come! I'll kill them all!" He pointed towards his classmates, glaring at them. "And if any of you are scared, walk out now! I don't need you here, you extras!"

"You still wouldn't be allowed to fight if they came here…"

"Quiet! I'll kill you too!"

"Bakugo's right!" Iida suddenly yelled, standing up from his place on the floor, "We have faced this before and we shall face it again! Let us not be afraid!"

Tokoyami chimed in coolly from his place leaning against the wall, "Our foes will weep in the midst of our victory."

"We'll crush all of them in a manly battle!"

"Wow, looks like Bakugo got everyone fired up," Mina whispered to Jiro, "That's different."

"Shut the fuck up!"

Aizawa took this moment to stand up now, allowing all his students to turn their attention towards him and wait for his words.

"Like you said, this isn't anything new from what you kids have already experienced. You guys already know what it's like to face villains," he said, "There is something far more dangerous than a possible attack on us."

"There is?" Kaminari raised an eyebrow. "That seems pretty serious to me."

"Yeah, sensei."

"It _is_ pretty bad."

Midoriya's hands tightened into fists and he felt his shoulders tense. "That's not it!"

The background chatter silenced once again. Uraraka tilted her head at him. "Deku-kun…?"

His eyes trailed down, and Midoriya felt his jaw clench. He could already hear the words in his head, the image of his mom's crying face popped in his mind.

" _Izuku…don't go to U.A."_

" _With the state U.A. is in, I cannot in good conscience entrust my son to your school."_

"What's really scary is that—to anybody else—they could have made _sense,"_ he stated finally, head bowing down. "This won't affect the heroes. It'll affect the _schools_ and any student that wants to be a hero."

Sero chimed in, placing a hand on Midoriya's shoulder. "Come on, man! There's no _way_ people will just buy into this bullshit."

"Think about it, guys," Midoriya said, "Regardless of whether they believe in it or not, a lot of parents—and maybe even students—are going to be scared. It's like how our parents were when we got attacked at the training camp."

"Come to think of it," Hagakura said, raising her gloved hands. She shivered. "It took me _days_ to convince my parents to let me stay in the dorms."

Aizawa nodded, arms crossing over his chest. "Midoriya is right. It's very likely that a lot of families are going to be scared after this, especially parents who don't have any hero experience whatsoever."

"B-but! Aizawa-sensei! These parents already knew that their kids would be in danger. That's what a hero _does."_ Kaminari reasoned.

Tsuyu pressed a finger to her cheek in thought. "That was before they threatened their untrained kids and blew up three hero schools during classes, _kero_."

"Many schools do not carry the same benefits as U.A as well" Shoji lamented, "Most are not guarded with the same levels of security."

Ashido sighed. "I guess it makes sense. If I were a parent, I'd probably be stressed out too. Heck, I'm stressed out _now._ "

"To have someone you love, let alone your own child, be threatened with death," Yaoyorozu lamented, "It must be very hard."

"Yeah…"

"The actions of everyone surrounding this incident will affect the next few weeks to come," Aizawa said, turning back to the television, "Let's see what happens."

And so, they did. They watched the fights from each school, one remaining on TV where the red-haired girl fought. Two laptops were set up to show the events of the other two schools, where the pros had just started arriving to the scenes to fight off villains.

" _She's down!"_ the reporter on TV suddenly shouted, and the camera panned back to the courtyard. The girl had sank down to one knee and was now coughing. _"Could this be the end of our valiant hero, ladies and gentlemen?"_

"Oh no!" Ashido gasped, "What happened to her?"

"There was a villain that let out poison gas," Todoroki observed, "She must have inhaled some."

"Dammit! Don't give up, whoever-you-are!" Kirishima yelled, "Fight!"

"Yeah! Kick their asses!"

"You _do_ know she can't hear you guys, right?"

"Doesn't matter!"

They watched as the girl let out two more beams of light, before she sank to the ground again, her hand to her chest. She was panting heavily now, but she seemed to have enough strength to call out to someone off-screen. The crowbar in her hand smashed into someone's knee.

Suddenly the camera shook and they heard a loud _whoosh_ sound. It was only for a moment, the sound growing softer in a few seconds.

" _Oh my god. Is that…?"_ The reporter recounted, though the audience could not see what she was talking about. _"It is! Ladies and gentlemen, Halley Comet is on the scene! She is the first pro hero to arrive."_

"Finally!" Ashido yelled, "It's _about time_ a pro arrived to help."

" _And look!"_ the camera panned off a few streets away, where people in hero costumes—as well as ambulances—were rushing in the direction of the school. _"More help is coming!"_

Uraraka sighed in relief, leaning back on the sofa. "Thank goodness."

Many of them felt relief for the situation. After all, help was on the way now and the unknown girl was already with a pro. All she needed to do now was cooperate with the authorities and hold off until the battle was over.

* * *

The minute Comet arrived on the scene, it took all her willpower to stop herself from hugging her daughter and shielding her from any harm. Instead, she landed in front of Ria and hurled a flaming rock at the nearest bunch villains to them.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, not looking back.

Ria cleared her throat, but her voice still came out raspy from the effects of the gas, "I inhaled poisonous gas, and using my quirk appears to make breathing more painful. I also hit my head in the explosion, and I'm not sure if I have a concussion or not. I'm still alive though."

"Very observant."

"You asked," Ria turned around so that she faced away from her mother, hitting the next guy that came near them. "The survivors. They are under attack in the auditorium."

Comet nodded. She unhooked a whip from her belt and handed it to Ria. "Go. Most of them are here, so I'll take them on. Help should be on the way soon."

Ria grasped the item in her hand and tilted her head. "Your whip."

"There was no time to fetch any other weapons," Halley Comet said, hurling rocks from the rubble, "You are free to use the crowbar, if you'd like."

Without a thought, Ria swung the crowbar into another villain's ribs before dropping it entirely. It was heavy and she didn't have much strength left to wield it anymore. "Thanks mom—I mean, Halley Comet. You're the best."

Comet hurled a flaming boulder to her left, opening a path of villains in its wake. She glanced back at Ria for a brief moment. "Be careful."

* * *

Nami ducked and sank her arm into the side of another man's head. She had transformed it into a war hammer now, while her other arm remained incapable of transforming into anything.

"Hibiki!" she called out, "Are you okay?"

"I've been worse," he answered back. His jacket was pressed to his leg where he had been hit with a flying knife. "Don't worry about me!"

Nami swung her hammer again. "You need to get back into the auditorium!"

"I can't leave this guy here!" he yelled back.

Nami cursed under her breath. Next to Hibiki was a semi-conscious second-year student. They had found him shortly before multiple villains came running in their direction. Hibiki was helping him get to the auditorium when the back of his leg got hit, sending them both down. Technically, it was possible for him to crawl to safety on his own, but he couldn't do it without leaving his upperclassman open to attacks.

There were three men around them now. She had just taken out one guy, but now she was forced to stay in front of Hibiki, lest they hurt him or make him a hostage.

"Nami, left!" Hibiki said, and Nami immediately followed his instructions. "Duck!"

"Got it!"

"Jump! Also, stop swearing so much! Do you think of your mother with that mind of yours?"

"Shut up, Hibiki!" She said, landing a hit to one of their ribs. "This is not the time."

"Hey—Right—I'm just trying to add humor—Jump back—into your life!" he quipped, chuckling. "Besides, you're about to get your butt saved."

"What are you—"

A whip coiled itself around the neck of one of the men, and he was pulled back forcefully, screaming. Ria pulled until his head landed hard on a rock in front of her, effectively knocking him out. Taking advantage of the distraction, Nami hit the guy nearest to her on the head, sending him down as well.

"Sorry I'm late," Ria croaked out, undoing the whip on the guy's neck.

"Are you okay over there, Iincho?" Hibiki asked, taking in the way she heaved with every breath.

"Help is on the way," Ria said instead of answering. Her eyes trained on the last villain that they had to face. Saber. He stared back at her ferociously.

"Not bad, Girly." He said, fingers now becoming knives once again, "You still haven't won though."

Ria's grasp on her whip tightened, and she readied herself for his attack. "The pros are nearly here. Surrender before it's too late."

"See, here's the thing, kid. I have nothing to lose. You and all those heroes you look up to, you guys have a code, right? Well, villains have one too," he explained, leering. "I don't run, and I don't surrender."

Suddenly, Nami jumped in front of him, aiming a swing to his chest. He dodged it and fired a string of knives in her direction, which she evaded with another swipe of her weapon.

"That's enough talk," Nami said, her arm turning into a sword now, "I don't care about your code or what you do or do not have to lose. All I know is that you killed my friends, so you're not leaving this place a free man."

"See? That's what's wrong with all you heroes. So quick to take away our freedom"

"Ria, let's finish this."

Ria nodded. They had the advantage in numbers, that much was for sure. She silently took in the way he moved, noting how he glanced between the two of them as they began to circle around him.

Nami let out a cry as she moved first, rushing forward to slash at him. He jumped back to evade it, hurling a spray of knives at her. Ria's whip flew forward, catching him in the wrist. She pulled, making him face her.

"Iincho! Watch your left!" Ria glanced over and stopped the hand that was about to stab her in the neck. He held on to the whip and pulled her forward, closer to the knife. She grit her teeth and held his hand as far away from her as she could.

Nami skidded across the ground to place a slash on the back of his legs. He grunted and separated himself from Ria as the sword was thrust towards his stomach. A growl escaped his lips, and he aimed a kick at Nami's face while the knives at his fingers shot at Ria.

"Nami! Incoming from above!" Hibiki barked, "Iincho! Go backwards!"

Both girls evaded the respected attacks with ease, with Ria catching him in the face with her whip and Nami nearly slashing him in the foot. The villain whirled around, his eyes locking with Hibiki's a few yards away.

"You," he said, his voice deadly. Hibiki's jaw clenched. "You've made things pretty unfair, haven't you?"

"Uh, Iincho?"

"Let's see you handle _this_!"

Hibiki turned quickly, his body draping over the victim beside him. He closed his eyes in anticipation, waiting for a knife to dig into his back. _Shit!_

" _I've got you!"_ He heard someone yell in his mind.

Only when he heard the sound of metal clashing did he think to raise his head again. Nami stood in front of him, her attack arm now bleeding. She raised her sword to deflect the next flurry of knives that came her way. Farther away, Hibiki watched as Ria kept one of the villain's arms tied with her whip while she fought him off.

"Get Hibiki and the victim inside!" she ordered, swiftly bending back to avoid the slash to her face.

"But—"

"Come back for me after!" she tried to knee him in the gut, "They're safer inside! _"_

Nami stared at her for a moment, brows furrowed. Sighing exasperatedly, she begrudgingly turned around to face Hibiki. Crouching down, she put the victim's arm over her shoulder and heaved as she pushed up with her legs. It wasn't much, but she managed to lift his body enough so that he was somewhat off the ground. He was bigger than she was, and much heavier than she thought.

"What are you waiting for?" she barked at Hibiki, "Get your butt off the ground and get the door."

Hibiki swiftly braced himself on the wall and made sure to lean on one foot. "Geez, you're cranky."

"This guy is heavy."

"I know, I was just carrying him."

"Hibiki, if Ria gets stabbed because of you, I will personally shape-shift my arm into a rod and shove it up your—"

"Okay! Okay!" he said quickly limping to where the door was. "Relax, it's Iincho we're talking about."

* * *

 _Iincho_ herself, however, was growing very tired of the events that played out. She gasped as Saber landed a punch to her chest, knocking the breath out of her. Every step she took felt like a stab to her lungs, even if she wasn't using her quirk. She pulled his whip-bound wrist to shield her as his knife came towards her face.

She had to admit, he was a strong opponent—stronger than most of the other villains he brought with him. He had a quirk that was very suitable for battle, and if she had been injured more seriously, Ria knew that she wouldn't have stood a chance.

"You don't give up, do you?" her opponent asked, slashing her in the arm.

"Not today."

"You know, it's too bad." He said, "If the rest of your class was as talented as you and the other two, you might have made pretty good villains. So much potential wasted."

Ria slid across the ground, pulling him down with her. She grit her teeth as she kicked his leg as hard as she could. " _You_ don't get to talk about them."

He groaned and attempted to get up, but Ria yanked him down. Climbing on his back, she attempted to choke him with her whip, but he raised his hand to block his neck.

"They were weak, and your school was stupid," he ground out, "No quirk powerful enough to help them survive a measly explosion, and no security system to stop our guys from planting bombs where we wanted."

She kicked him hard in the side. "You talk too much."

"It's better that they're dead. Best to give up now before you end up just like them!" As he said this, he threw her off him, flipping her over on her back. Saber unfurled the whip from his wrist.

She quickly rolled out of the way, knives just grazing her uniform every time she moved.

 _Give up,_ Ria repeated to herself bitterly. And in that moment, she thought of everything that she had been up against that day. All the grief and anger and pain.

Her school was gone. Her homeroom teacher was dead. Her _friends_ were probably dead.

 _She_ was the class president. If anyone was supposed to die, shouldn't she have been the first one? She would have volunteered to be the first one. Her class worked harder than any people she knew. She trained with them, grew with them, and laughed with them. Their school wasn't big with fancy training simulations and celebrity teachers, but it was _theirs._

"And you tore it away from us."

So no, she would not give up.

The pain that she felt from losing everybody manifested itself in her bloodstream, turning itself into something that gave her _strength_ to get up and keep going.

 _You were all cowards_ , she thought. _Cowards that planted bombs when no one was looking, cowards that went against untrained heroes instead of pros. You are nothing compared to them._

"They were braver than any of you were," was all she could whisper as she slammed her fist in his face.

"And now they're dead."

He swung at her again. She was prepared this time and caught one of his knives in her hands. Ria twisted it and made to jab at his neck, catching his ear instead as he twisted and lurched away from her.

Something flashed in the corner of her eye, a shine different from the knives he'd been slashing her with. A beat of caution passed as she spared it a glance, before recognition settled flickered in her eyes. For a moment, a pang of disappointment and frustration bubbled in her, and she frowned as she pushed the feeling down.

Immediately, she stepped back from Saber and did a series of backflips away as he sent a barrage of knives at her. Sprinting, Ria dodged each weapon that flew at her. Her whip crackled out as she used it to deflect a few that flew to her face, evading once again. She made no move to attack him.

"Finally running away?" Saber asked, rubbing the soreness in his wrist from where her weapon had gotten him. His back faced the courtyard now. "I thought you were better than that."

"I am."

He aimed another series of knives at her, and she dodged each one carefully, ducking and side-stepping when she could. However, she did not move from her spot. Saber scowled at her, noting her switch in tactics.

"What are you—"

Ria blinked when glowing red tendril suddenly shot out and pierced him in the gut.

The villain's eyes grew wide. Suddenly, tendril after tendril flew out, piercing one of his shoulders, his thighs, and his knees. He slashed at another one before it could pierce his other arm. Saber's gaze snapped to Ria, who now stood wordlessly a good distance away from him.

"The fuck—"

"Perhaps," a voice cut in, dangerously calm. "Before you use your abilities to terrorize heroes in training, you should remember to take in your surroundings in battle as well."

Silent steps padded towards them, a hero arriving in battle. The red and blue fabric of his shinobi outfit crinkled, and a dull light reflected off his spiky silver hair. Behind him, a rather one-sided battle broke out, as more pros came to the scene to fight off what was left of the conscious villains.

Edgeshot pulled down, effortlessly bringing the villain down with his tendrils. A strangled cry escaped Saber's lips. He sank down to his knees begrudgingly.

Ria tilted her head at her opponent "I told you that reinforcements were coming."

Edgeshot peered over at the girl that stood a few feet away from him, taking in her bloodied and disheveled appearance after the fight. "Are you alright, citizen?"

Ria shook her head slowly at him. "I'm not injured badly," she said softly. As her disappointment at not being able to defeat the villain herself subsided, her chest filled with relief. She allowed herself to let out a shaky breath.

Relief was rather short-lived when her body began to grow numb again, and at that point, Ria finally let the weight of the day bear down on her completely. Her shoulders slumped, as though heavy loads had been stacked upon them. _It's over_ , a small voice in her head said. Passing a hand over her face, she furrowed her brows when she noticed the blood smeared all over parts of her uniform. And all of a sudden, she felt _gross._

Around her, she could hear various sirens blaring, getting nearer and nearer until they finally arrived at the school. Ria sank to her knees, hands shaking.

"You did well," Edgeshot told her, "You have no need to worry now. Help has arrived."

"No need to worry now", she echoed in a quiet whisper. Her head lifted to lock eyes with the hero, and from one glance, Edgeshot understood the weight of his words. She shook her head at him because he was _wrong_. Because she felt like her worrying had just begun.

"You are safe," he clarified, voice remaining neutral and calm.

"Yes, you are," her villain sneered. Edgeshot moved his hand down a fraction, and Saber cried out in pain as he pressed a hand to where a tendril had pierced his stomach.

"You have lost your right to speak, _Villain_."

A wicked smile crept along Saber's face, and he slowly turned his head to look at Ria. He was…smiling? A shudder travelled up her spine, and she mentally berated herself for feeling anything. She stared back at him, plastering a mask of calm on her face. She sat up as straight as she could and didn't look away.

"You know your friend—the one with the mind-reading—he's got a good quirk," he stated, "But he got something wrong." Ria blinked in confusion but kept her face still.

"What are you talking about?"

"My quirk isn't to make my fingers into knives. He probably just assumed that and skipped reading my mind _._ "

Suddenly, his arms flew up and pointed away from her, "I don't just use knives!"

It took a split second for Ria to follow the line of sight of his hand, and she felt her eyes widen. _The auditorium_. Both she and Edgeshot fired at the same time, his tendril reaching the villain faster than her orb of light could. Still, she heard Saber's arms fire something.

Stabbing pain filled her lungs once again, blood coming out of her mouth as she coughed. She clutched her ribs and doubled over as she immediately looked back up to Saber.

Thanks to their efforts, the villain's arm had been knocked to the left as he fired. Ria glanced up to look at his hand. _Bullets_. She looked over to the auditorium and sighed in relief when she realized most of them had simply strayed off away from it. There were a few bullet marks on the wall, but it did not appear to have penetrated all the way through the concrete.

Suddenly, Saber howled in pain and slumped to the ground, unconscious. It was then that Edgeshot released his tendrils from him. He walked over to Ria.

"You are hurt," he observed, putting a hand to her shoulder and patting her back to ease her coughing. Ria waved him off gently. Her lungs burned, but she would live. She let him help her stand on shaky legs before she wiped the blood off her mouth with her arm. By the gate, she spotted the ambulances.

"There are injured survivors inside the auditorium," she croaked out, and Edgeshot nodded at the information.

"We should get you medical attention," he stated, but Ria shook her head.

"I'm fine. The victims in the auditorium have more severe injuries."

The hero's eyes travelled to the direction she motioned. "I shall notify the medical authorities of this information. It would be best if you allow yourself to sit and rest for a moment, lest you collapse."

"I'm alright," she reasoned again, though her voice had grown soft and hoarse. "I'll inform the victims that it's alright to step outside now."

He regarded her for a moment, as though he was trying to decide whether or not he should let her go. After a moment of contemplation, he seemed to quietly agree with her. He bowed his head slightly in consent before turning back to jog to the gate.

Ria trudged towards the auditorium and lifted a heavy arm to twist the doorknob. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, ignoring the dirt on her hands.

"Students and faculty," she announced hoarsely, "I apologize for the wait, but reinforcements have arrived, and it is now safe to—"

"Ria," Hibiki's voice called her, and she looked down at him.

Her blood grew cold at the sight.

Laid in front of him was Nami, blood seeping through her uniform and onto the floor. The nurse had her hands over her stomach, which is where most of the bleeding seemed to be coming from. Nami's face was pale, contorting in a pained expression.

"What happened?" Ria demanded, her eyes widening in fear. Instinctively, she crouched down, placing her hands over the nurse's.

"She was shot," Hibiki held his classmate tighter, ignoring the blood that began to seep into his clothes. "Bullets just came flying through the door. Nami was in front of it."

"But I—" Ria whirled around to peer at the auditorium entrance.

Sure enough, looking back at her with sunlight streaming through…were two bullet holes. And then a horrifying thought struck her.

" _Come back for me after!"_

Ria felt bile rise up to her throat as her brain put the pieces together. _She was going back for me. That's why she was in front of the door._

"Ria-chan." She turned back around at the weak voice. Nami looked back at her, a weak smile plastered on her face.

"She's losing too much blood!" the nurse said, putting in as much clean gauze as she could get her hands on onto the wound. None of it seemed to make much of a difference as blood oozed out from the white material.

"Help!" Ria shouted as loudly as she could, "We need paramedics in here now!"

"I'm sorry," Nami said, her voice small, "I was supposed to go back to help you."

Pain twisted in Ria's chest as she immediately shook her head. "You did everything right." She grasped Nami's hand in her own tightly before moving to get up. "I'm going to get help-"

A weak squeeze stopped her, and Ria was startled by how she could barely feel the gesture. She stared back as blood began to seep into her classmate's green hair as well, "Please don't leave me."

Ria's expression softened, and she moved back to sit and grasp her hand. She brushed the hair from her friend's face, settling her hand on her cheek. "Somebody help! Edgeshot!" she yelled out desperately, where she knew the medics were coming from.

"Help us!" Hibiki joined in, his voice cracking.

"Why do you guys sound so far away?" Hibiki squeezed her tighter, and Ria sucked in a shaky breath. The nurse continued to work on her as best as she could.

"We're right here," Ria assured, her voice wavering. "Just hold on a little longer. Help will be here soon."

"Yeah! Um…" Hibiki trailed off, "I still owe you that ice cream at that new desserts shop, remember? I'll even get you a whole cake, just…stay awake."

"That..sounds great," she said with eyes that didn't seem to see them anymore, eyes that no longer had light in them. "You guys…are the best…"

"Nami, keep your eyes open," Despite Ria's begging, Nami's eyes began to slowly close. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."

Nami shook her head weakly. "It isn't." her voice sounded tired and so very small now.

"But it's too bad," she continued, "I really…wanted…to live too."

A breath left her, and the hand that Ria held went limp.

"Nami? Nami!"

"Please…"

"Fuck! Please Nami! Open your eyes."

"Don't die!"

"Don't leave us!"

The doors burst open, and Ria was pushed away. She stared at her hand as it was pried away from her friend's. Quickly, she scurried to a nearby wall and clasped her hands to her mouth. Soon, Hibiki was separated from Nami as well. He limped over to where Ria was and immediately grabbed her hand when she held it out to him.

They watched as the medics worked on their friend, watched as they hooked her up to a small monitor, as they packed in more gauze and even as they placed a defibrillator on her chest. Things seemed to move in maddening slow motion. Hibiki's hand squeezed hers tightly.

Together, they watched. Tears came freely down Hibiki's cheeks as Ria struggled to breathe, struggled not to scream. The shaking in her body intensified, while sobs racked his body because deep down, they _knew_.

 _Why is this happening?_

A strangled cry escaped her lips, and Hibiki held her close as a paramedic shook his head and announced Nami's death.

* * *

 **And so our story begins.**


	2. Glimpse

**Hi guys!**

 **A bit of context to this story: The timeline is tweaked a little. It takes place right after the provisional exams, then follows up with a time skip of two months. In that time, the rest of the high school world continues on with their studies, then goes off on a semestral break. The fight between Midoriya and Bakugou happens soon before the start of the second semester, instead of right after the provisional exam.**

 **And with that, here's chapter 2 for all of you. I had to split it in half because it was getting a bit long, so I'll hopefully get the next one out sooner. Enjoy!**

 **Chapter published on: 1/23/2019 (PHT)**

* * *

" _Hikari-chan, give us a speech!"_

From where she sat on a picnic blanket, Ria turned away from her conversation with Nami to looked back at one of their classmates. She tilted her head in confusion. _"What for?"_

" _What do you mean,_ what for _?"_ another classmate said, nearly choking on the meat he had stuffed into his mouth. _"We all passed the provisional exams! Aren't you proud of us?"_

" _Of course I am,"_ Ria answered, her expression neutral and slightly dumbfounded, _"Isn't that why we are having this picnic?"_

Nami perked up from beside her, _"Well yeah! But do you know how rare it is for an entire class to even pass at our school? Let alone a first-year class?"_

" _You might have been the first freshmen to pass at our school, actually."_ Kanazawa-sensei chimed in, flipping some skewers on the grill.

Sounds of surprise filled the air, only to be replaced with varying reactions of happiness from the class. Kanazawa-sensei crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. She shook her head at them, amused. _"Don't let it get to your head though. This just means you all have to work harder."_

" _Hai!"_

" _But really, Ria-chan, you should give a speech,"_ Nami reasoned again, raising her water bottle to her lips to take a sip.

" _Yeah,"_ someone yelled, _"Go on, Class President!"_

" _Come on, Iincho! Speech, speech, speech!"_

" _Hibiki, put that thing away."_ Ria sent him a weary look as people began to join him, and he flashed her a grin before continuing to chant. Soon enough, the rest of her classmates followed suit, until their voices began to clash with the peacefulness of the riverside. _"Speech! Speech! Speech!"_

And despite her comment, Hibiki did _not_ put away the camera he was holding, continuing to point it at her increasingly disgruntled face. _"It's for documentation!"_ he laughed.

Kanazawa-sensei smirked at her, placing her hands on her hips _"I don't think you have a choice, Hikari."_

Ria looked around with fond exasperation before eventually shrugging and standing up. Cheers and claps sounded before eventually dying down. Everyone—save for Kanazawa-sensei—was seated on the grass and looked up at her expectantly.

She cleared her throat and addressed her classmates. _"Alright…Well, let's see. First of all, we cannot deny that none of us would have been able to pass the exam—or apply for it, for that matter—without Kanazawa-sensei, so please so give her a round of applause for consistently bearing with us and helping us improve our quirks. Thank you, Sensei."_

" _Thank you, Sensei!"_ her classmates repeated. Ria bowed to their homeroom teacher respectfully.

Kanazawa-sensei laughed heartily at the applause, before raising her beer to them. _"Don't think this means that I'll be going easy on you guys from now on. The work is just beginning."_

Ria continued on. She tipped her head to glance up at the sky briefly. _"Now, I'm unsure as to why you all want me to give you a speech. To be honest, this feels a little bit strange because I knew that everyone would pass."_

" _You knew that we would pass?"_

Nami flashed her a look of confusion. _"What do you mean, Ria-chan?"_

" _Of course, there was no way to know for sure. But, I saw how hard we all worked to prepare for the exam, and I guess I had a feeling that we would make it."_ Ria shrugged again as a wide grin spread across her face. _"I know that sometimes, hard work isn't enough. Most of Japan hasn't even heard of Natsukashi High School, so it's natural to think that the odds were stacked against us and that other hero schools had something that we didn't. Maybe some of us thought that we weren't good enough to do it or that we didn't have what it took to be heroes at all."_

Her eyes spread across the crowd, sharing a quick look with everyone. _"But I had faith. In the support we had for each other. In our hard work. I knew that we wouldn't leave anyone behind if we could help it. All of those days that we spent training has come to fruition this week. We are not going to win every battle or triumph against every obstacle, but this time, we did."_

Bending down, she picked her juice-filled cup from the ground and held it up. _"So I suppose, I'll be making a toast. This toast is for us. For all our hard work, and for all the hard work we have yet to put in. One day, we will make our school known to the world, and if we can't do that, then we will at least make our class known."_

" _Yeah!"_

" _They won't know what hit 'em!"_

Ria smiled, _"And lastly, I am proud. So very, very proud to be called your class president," she said, "Let's all be great heroes someday."_

 _She raised her cup. "To the future!"_

" _To the future!"_ her classmates repeated, toasting cups of soda and juice.

* * *

" _It's been two months since the devastating attack that people are now calling The Hero School Massacres. Three schools that housed training programs for both hero and support students were attacked, killing three hundred and five people and injuring seventy-six. In addition, the group that allegedly perpetrated this attack has posted a video, which has now gone viral, explaining their intent to further attack schools with hero training programs. Since then, there has been major unrest amongst citizens as worry has spread—"_

Ria turned the knob of the radio silently, turning it off.

She looked back to her dad, smiling pleasantly. "As I was saying, it's going to be hard to see you now on the weekdays, but I'll make sure to visit at least once during the weekends. Plus, I'll be calling you and mom every day."

"You don't have to worry about that, Firefly," her dad said, waving her off, "We'll be fine."

Ria nodded absently, and a moment of silence passed by between the two of them. Her eyes traveled to the window, where warm light was streaming through. Hand raised, an orb of light manifested by the window and floated towards her. She stared as it hovered in her palm, before it disappeared into her skin. Her brows furrowed slightly in thought.

"Are you sure you're alright with me going?" she asked almost suddenly, "It is not too late for me to back out. I could train at home for a few months and take care of Hiro, or I could work at the theatre and help pay the bills."

Her dad let out a hum, tilting his head back to look at the ceiling. He stroked the hair on his beard, contemplating. When he looked back at her, he reached out his hand and watched as she held it in her smaller one.

"I believe the real question is: Are _you_ sure you want to go?"

Ria nodded immediately, a glint passing through her eyes. "I'm sure."

Her father smiled tersely at her, and she took note of how his jaw tightened. All the same, he gently pulled his hand away and moved it to cup her face. She put her hand over his and closed her eyes. _So warm._

"Then go."

His eyes locked onto hers and they briefly shared a look before he let his hand fall. She squeezed it and got up to fix her things. Picking up her grey school blazer, and she shrugged it on before heading to the door. "Bye Papa."

As her hand reached out for the doorknob, her father spoke up again. "Firefly."

"Hm?" she looked back at him. He smiled warmly at her, a hint of something unreadable in his expression.

"If you want to talk, or if you feel sad…" he said slowly, choosing his words. "I want you to know that it's okay to talk to someone about it, okay? Your mother and I… We love you very much, and we're both here if you need us."

Ria froze for a second, a look of hesitation passing through her face. Her father leaned back on his hospital bed and crossed his arms over his chest. She gave him a small smile. "I love you too, Papa."

He nodded, "Off you go, then. Do your best."

"I will."

* * *

She had anticipated this already, but U.A. was undeniably the _biggest_ school she had ever been to in her life.

As Ria walked around the campus, she could not stop herself from looking around. Each room they went to seemed to offer something new to look at. The classroom doors were _enormous_ , the hallways were so much wider than she was used to, and there were security cameras everywhere. Around her, her fellow new students were doing much of the same thing, Hound Dog-sensei leading their group through the school.

As they finished up the tour, Ria and the other students were taken to a big courtyard. By then, many people had gathered and were lined up in an orderly fashion. Her eyes skimmed the crowd, wondering if she would recognize anyone from previous sports festivals she had watched.

Eventually, she gave up her search and resigned herself to being ushered away to the side with her fellow new students. She felt a few stares from the crowd of students to her left, but she ignored them all. _It makes sense that people would stare._

This was nothing new.

When all students had settled down, a very fashionably dressed mouse got up on stage and stepped onto a stool. Ria's eyes lit up in recognition. _Principal Nezu._

She had done a bit of research on U.A. prior to her transfer there. The principal was a known figure even without the school's massive name. In fact, it became a known fact that his IQ was one of the highest in Japan.

And he wasn't the only one with a positive reputation, either. Majority of the teachers were well-known heroes as well. Ria had seen many of them in magazine or news articles, as well as in videos. Some of them stayed away from the press, but one could not deny that each teacher had impressive sets of skill.

 _But to bring all of these heroes together…_ Ria thought to herself, _Principal Nezu must have very important things to say._ Her eyes trained on him as he addressed the crowd.

…and then as he began talking about hair care and lifestyle choices.

Ria blinked in confusion, wondering if she heard him right. She glanced over at the students at her side. All of them were listening to the principal, but a lot of them also looked bored. A small smile spread on her lips.

As the top hero school in Japan, Ria had expected U.A. to be serious and formal. However, at the present moment, she was relieved to think that she might be wrong. Apart from its massive campus, it seemed very similar to regular high schools.

"But! The thing that has majorly thrown my lifestyle off-track is, as everybody knows, that 'incident' that occurred this summer." Ria's eyes lit up in attention, her head inclining in interest.

Principal Nezu continued, "The loss of a pillar…"

She let out a small hum in understanding. After all, who _hadn't_ heard of the Kamino Ward incident? Her eyes traveled to the side of the stage, where teachers in attendance stood. And then, she saw him.

 _All Might_.

It was odd to see him in the state he was in…thin and sickly. During most of the times she had seen him on TV, he had always taken a massively muscular form, so much that Ria's sister had once asked their mom if the Symbol of Peace could crush someone's head if it were pressed hard enough in the bend of his arm. Now, his real body betrayed the mightiness of the image he'd given the world years ago. At a passing glance, one might easily think he was frail or that his lanky body could be blown away by the wind at any moment.

And yet, as he looked over the crowd of students, All Might stood tall. _Like he's not afraid of anything in this world._

" _You're next,"_ she remembered hearing his voice on TV, and for a second, her lips turned down in a barely visible frown.

Principal Nezu's voice rang through the crowd. "The effects of that incident are beginning to appear even faster than we imagined," she brought her eyes back to the stage and paused when she realized that he had then turned his head towards her and her companions.

"Great difficulties have already begun to emerge in our society, as evidenced by another incident that happened a few months ago." Ria stiffened, knowing exactly to which he was referring to. She glanced back to her companions as various reactions of unease took over their demeanors. "For those of you in the department of heroics in particular, it will be most prominent." Ria took a deep breath.

"And for you in your second and third years involved in your hero internships, you must have an even more increased awareness of this crisis situation." She blinked. _Hero internships?_

Though she was aware of what they were, Ria had never actually taken one before. Because of the attention the school got, it was common knowledge that first-years at U.A. took internships after the sports festivals. From time to time, one would hear about a U.A. student on the news. _But to have them take on work whilst balancing studies as well… U.A. really must have an intensive hero program._

"I know this is a heavy topic and that the effects have been bleak," she heard the principal say, "But even if the outlook is grim, the adults are currently doing their best to somehow do something about it. I would like you to someday develop into people capable of continuing their work."

Her expression became serious. Ria nodded to herself, determined.

"Whether you're in the Department of Management, The Department of General Education, The Department of Support, or The Department of Heroics, please do not forget that you are successors to our society!" He exclaimed, "You are the future!" And with that, Principal Nezu stepped back and walked off the stage proudly.

"It was a good speech," Ria whispered to herself as he finished.

Vlad King went up on stage to pick up the step stool, tucking it under his arm. His head leaned towards the microphone. "Well then, lastly, a few cautionary words from our lifestyle guidance teacher, Hound Dog."

Ria watched as a familiar figure went up to the stage. It was a welcomed sight to see someone familiar, even if she had only spent a portion of the morning with him during her tour. Hound Dog had seemed nice enough. Perhaps he was intimidating to look at, but when one actually talked to him—

A growl tore through the crowd. It grew louder and louder, until the teacher began barking into the microphone.

Ria's head tilted forward a bit as she watched him grunt at them. Somewhere in between his angry dog sounds, he managed out a few words. "Used to…life…dorm…" A final howl of frustration left him before Hound Dog seemingly gave up, exiting the stage.

Silence swept over the student body, and Ria was fairly sure that she was not the only one who wondered what had just happened.

Vlad-sensei stepped up to the microphone again and cleared his throat. "What he meant to say was: Last night, there was an unauthorized fight at Ground Beta between two students," he explained, "You may be unused to life in the dorms, but let's try to live a life of moderation."

 _Fighting students,_ she thought, curiosity peaked, _I wonder what they could have possibly been fighting about._

With that, Vlad-sensei announced the end of the opening ceremony. Her student group was the last to leave the courtyard, and Ria watched as the large crowd of students dispersed. Principal Nezu approached them before they left.

"Ah, new students!" he said with a wave of his hand, "I would like to officially welcome you into U.A.!"

* * *

"Let's see… Today, you'll be continuing normal classes." Aizawa noted, going over the agenda on his notebook, "There has been an unprecedented number of incidents lately, but it's time to shift back and fulfill your duties as _students_. Today will be limited to classroom lectures only. However, there will be tougher training later in the semester-"

"He's not talking about it…" someone whispered, catching his attention. Aizawa's eyes lit up in their usual, frightening red glow, his hair and scarf floating menacingly around him.

"Yes, Ashido?" he bellowed in annoyance. The alien girl in question jerked up and shuddered visibly.

"Eek! I haven't felt this sensation in so long," she squeaked, "So creepy…"

"Then maybe you should pipe down."

"Uhh, but Sensei?" she said, sheepishly raising her hand, "I really do have a question."

Aizawa let his hair and scarf fall back down around his shoulders, his arms crossing over his chest. "What is it?"

"What's with the extra desk?"

The rest of the class murmured in agreement.

"Yeah, Sensei," Sero added, "It's been there since we got here this morning, and none of us know why."

"Do we have an exchange student, perhaps?" Yaoyorozu asked, tapping her chin in thought.

Aizawa sighed. "If you had just been patient…I was getting to that."

He regarded his class seriously, and everyone remained silent as they waited for his answer. "As you all know, two months ago, we had the Hero School Massacres _."_

Majority of the class shifted, all eyes sparking in attention now. Aizawa continued, "A lot of schools have reached out to the survivors and offered to either accept them into their schools or allow them to take an entrance exam."

"U.A. was one of those schools, right?"

Aizawa nodded. "Not a lot of the survivors took them up on their offers. In fact, Japan as a whole has faced its biggest decline in hero course enrollments this semester, having dropped by ten percent."

"Ten percent!" Iida exclaimed, fists slamming on his desk in surprise. "That's absurd!"

"That doesn't seem too big," Kaminari commented.

Iida shook his head at him, "It only seems small, but that's actually a huge chunk of students."

"Over forty-nine thousand, in fact," Aizawa stated.

" _What?"_ Mineta exclaimed, "Are you serious? How do so many students just decide to up and leave?"

Aizawa grunted in acknowledgment. "If you think about it, that's forty-nine thousand less heroes in the future," he lamented, "So, if anything, what we can learn about this incident is that public perception matters. It's suspected that majority of why this is happening is because of that video that was posted and the threats it contained to students."

Ojiro crossed his arms over his chest in thought, "I suppose that makes sense. If the video wasn't posted and it had just been the attack, would the reaction be this big?"

"But Sensei," Asui said, raising her hand, "What does this have to do with the extra desk?"

"Despite those numbers, some people actually do still want to become heroes," he explained, "I told you that the events from that day would determine what would happen next. This is what happened next."

He walked over to the door to open it. Aizawa nodded to someone on the other side. "Please come in."

* * *

From the time the massacres happened up until this very day, Ria had become painfully aware of things that people did when they recognized someone who had gone through something traumatic.

Most common reactions included: whispering behind her back, or—for lack ideas of what to say—simply not talking to her.

She absolutely hated it.

But, in some ways, she understood why the reaction was like this. Her fight was broadcasted on the news, and in addition to that, she was one of the few students that _survived_. It was only natural that people would recognize her. Plus, being the daughter of a pro hero only amplified everything. Really, it might have been more surprising if no one noticed her.

But overnight, she went from being known as "The Daughter of Halley Comet" to "Hero School Massacre Survivor"

Also, everyone had that look in their eyes when they saw her. Some people tried to hide it, and while it was a nice enough gesture...

Not a lot of them were good at doing so.

As Ria walked in, she wondered what type of reactions she would get this time. Many people from the General Studies had already stared during her tour of the school, so she braced herself for anything. It didn't matter how they reacted. It really didn't.

She prolonged looking at anyone until the last second anyway.

"Y-you're—" She heard a voice say. _There it is._ Ria plastered a friendly smile on her face, like she hadn't heard the red haired guy's remarks nor saw the look of surprise that passed over everyone's faces as she stood before them.

"Everyone, this is Hikari Ria. She will be joining our class from now on."

Ria nodded at the introduction and kept her voice as even and as bright as possible. "It's nice to meet you all. I look forward to working with you."

Silence.

It swept over the room for a moment that seemed to go on forever to her. Ria had wondered if she was supposed to do something else to break that tension, _if that was possible._ The smile on her face remained in place, but behind her back, she gripped the handle of her bag a little tighter.

 _This is getting off to a great start,_ she thought to herself. She really ought to say something. Anything, really, before the silence became unbearable any longer and she spent too much time standing at the front of the class that—

"She's totally cute!" Two boys exclaimed. The smile she had plastered on slipped off in her surprise, her eyes snapping to a blonde haired boy with black highlights, as well as another shorter boy with purple…balls…on his head?

"You're both unbelievable…" A girl with short dark hair sighed, her hand pressed to her forehead in exasperation. The earphone jacks that dangled from her ears sprang forward to hit the two boys in the back. Their bodies visibly shook before each one of them slumped in their desks.

Another guy stood up, his glasses catching in the light in a way that prevented her from seeing his eyes. He pointed his hand at the two boys in an almost robotic fashion. "Kaminari! Mineta! Cease your foolishness immediately. You're giving a bad first impression to our new classmate!"

"Iida-kun, you're the one yelling though…" A brown haired girl said gently from behind him. Iida stiffened and immediately sat down, fists clenched in embarrassment.

"My apologies," he said, his head hung.

Ria's eyes looked over everyone in surprise. Suddenly, a few people were laughing and the room became more animated. _This is…different,_ she thought.

She heard a sigh beside her, and she turned to where her new homeroom teacher stood. He gestured to a desk in the back row. "Please take the seat over there."

She nodded and made her way over. A girl with black hair tied in a ponytail smiled as Ria sat down beside her.

"Hello, Hikari-san!" she said pleasantly as she held her hand out, "My name is—"

"Yaoyorozu Momo," Ria finished. She smiled as a look of surprise passed on her seatmate's face. Ria shook her hand. "I remember you from this year's sports festival. You did very well."

"Thank you," Yaoyorozu said. Beside her, a head of red and white hair shifted and Ria's eyes locked onto grey and blue eyes that stared back at her. _Todoroki Shouto,_ she remembered immediately.

"Nice to meet you," he said quietly. She nodded at him in acknowledgment.

"Nice to meet you too."

The boy with the purple balls on his head turned to look at her, a massive grin on his face. "My name is Mineta. Most charming man in this classroom! If you need anything, especially any _sexual_ favors—" From across the room, a tongue lashed out and smacked the back of his head. Ria blinked in surprise.

"Don't mind him," another boy with black hair said, having jerked his head forward to narrowly dodge a tongue to the side of his face. He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "He tends to go overboard. I'm Sero, by the way."

"That's enough," Aizawa finally said, "Save the introductions for later."

"Excuse me, Sensei?" Another girl chimed in, her hand raised. Ria scanned the seating chart that she had been given. Asui Tsuyu"I have a question. During the opening ceremony, they mentioned something called a Hero Internship. Could you please tell us about that?"

"Actually, yeah. The principal did say something like that." Sero looked over his shoulder to the person behind him. _Tokoyami,_ Ria remembered, _Third place at the sports festival._

"I was wondering as well."

"He said it was something many of the upperclassmen are engaged in," Yaoyorozu noted beside her.

Aizawa-sensei scratched his head thoughtfully. "I intended to talk about that another day…But I guess it's more logical to tell you about it now."

Ria raised her chin slightly in interest. _Internships._ She had remembered hearing that as well, and she'd be lying if she said that it didn't interest her greatly. The concept of a hero internship made sense, especially when she considered how advanced of a school U.A. was. However, she did not think that they would have internships so early on in school. She expected that students would need their provisional licenses before being allowed to go to any sort of dangerous activities, and that commonly happened to second-years. _It's also uncommon for first years to try to get their licenses anywa—_

"— _Hikari! …Aren't you proud of us?"_

Ria's body stiffened. Her eyes closed in what would look like a long blink to anyone around her. She didn't let the thought linger, pushing it to the back of her mind immediately. Her eyes fluttered open again. Glancing around, she was pleased to see that she did not seem to give off a big reaction and that everyone just seemed to be listening to their teacher speak.

"To put it simply," Aizawa began, "It entails hero activities outside of school. It's like the workplace experience you did with pro heroes before, except this is the real deal."

"So we had that kind of system…" she heard someone say.

 _Ah. Right._ Ria's brows furrowed slightly. In this situation, she was many steps behind the majority of her classmates. It was to be expected, of course. U.A. did, after all, have the best hero program in the country. Compared to them, Natsukashii's program was much smaller and was practically invisible. It was a journey and a half to even try for the licensing exam. A lot of effort was put into proving to people that despite the small scale of their hero program, it was worth continuing, and-

 _It doesn't even exist anymore._

Someone smacked the surface of a desk loudly, snapping Ria out of her thoughts. Her head snapped to Uraraka Ochako as she shrieked, "Why did I work so hard during the sports festival then?!"

"That's right," Iida noted, "If we have hero internships, even students who didn't get scouted from the sports festival will have paths opened up for them."

The guy beside Uraraka, Sato, tried to reassure her. "Okay, calm down, Uraraka. This isn't like you."

"B-but!"

"The hero internships will use the scouting and offers you gained during the sports festival as connections," Aizawa continued, "This isn't a part of your studies but is instead done at the discretion of the students. Those who weren't scouted at the sports festival will probably have a hard time participating."

"That's a shame," Ria whispered to herself.

"Originally, hero agencies would recruit individually, but there were many complications with trying to get U.A. students to join, so this method was created," he looked over at Uraraka pointedly. "If you understand, sit down."

She bowed her head slightly and sat down. "I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions."

"Now that you have your provisional licenses, you can assist in more real ways for longer periods of time. But, there haven't been many cases where first years have received their provisional licenses, and with the increased activity of villains, we are considering your participation cautiously."

He shrugged, "Well, we'll have you hear more about it and explain in further detail at a later date. We have our own things to consider."

"Anyway, sorry to keep you, Mic," Aizawa concluded, gathering his sleeping bag under his arm. The door opened, and a booming voice greeted them.

"First period! Time for some English!"

* * *

"Hikari-san!" Iida exclaimed, speeding to her desk at the start of their lunch period. "My name is Iida Tenya! I am the class representative of Class A. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask me."

Ria smiled, pausing from her task of putting her books away. "Thank you, Iida-kun! I appreciated it."

"Lively as usual, eh Iida?" Uraraka said as she came up behind him and grinned. "You might scare her off, you know."

Iida froze, as though contemplating the fact. He bowed his head quickly. "I-I apologize! I did not mean to come off too strong."

Ria put her hands out in front of her in reassurance. "No, you're fine. I think it's very nice that you are welcoming me."

He pounded his fist on his chest lightly, taking a somewhat military-like stance. "Of course! It is my duty as the class representative to ensure the well-being of all my classmates."

"That's very admirable of you," Ria said honestly. She bowed her head and continued to put her stuff away, her smile faltering for a second.

"Hikari-chan," Yaoyorozu said pleasantly, "Would you like to join us for lunch? You are more than welcome to sit with us."

"Yeah!" Uraraka cheered, "It'll be fun! We can all sit together at lunch and get to know each other!"

"I'm in!" Kirishima said.

"Me too!"

"This sounds fun!"

"It will also allow us to introduce ourselves better," Yaoyorozu said.

"Good idea, Yaoyorozu!" Iida said enthusiastically.

"Actually," Ria confessed, holding out the seating chart for them to see. "I've actually spent a lot of time learning your names. I also know most of you from watching the sports festival this year."

"Huh, I guess that's true," Ashido said, looking over the chart, "But hey, that doesn't mean we can't get to know each other anyway."

Ria nodded. "Alright then."

* * *

"Wow, this is the most that anyone's stared at us in a _while_!" Kirishima exclaimed as he set his tray down beside her.

He was right. Though Ria had done her best to blend in with Class A as they walked, she was only successful up until their group dispersed to get food. She had been in line with Hagakure when she realized some of the people in front of them were murmuring amongst themselves and looking at her. For the most part, she had been fairly good at ignoring it. Any time she looked like she noticed them, nearly anyone staring at her would simply look away anyway. However, she felt bad that the rest of her class had to deal with it as well.

"I'm sorry," she said, glancing around her, "I think it may be because of me."

"Hey, don't sweat it!" Kirishima said, flashing her a grin. "We've gotten used to it by now."

Ria tilted her head. "You've have?"

"Well, yeah!" he said. "I mean, first there was that attack that happened to us at USJ."

"Then the attack at the training camp," Kaminari chimed in, taking a bite of his pork chop.

Hagakure seemed to raise her hand up. "Don't forget the time Bakugo got kidnapped."

"That _was_ the training camp."

"Oh, right."

Uraraka gulped down some of her juice. "Don't worry about it. It usually goes away in a few weeks."

 _It hasn't gone away for two months,_ Ria thought, but she nodded all the same and forced a tiny smile. "Alright then. Thank you."

"Besides," Mineta said, jerking his thumb to the table near them, "At least it isn't as bad as _their_ table."

Ria followed her eyes to where he was pointing. She frowned. The table consisted of three people from her tour group this morning, all of them looking increasingly uncomfortable. One of them—a second-year girl named Inoue, who had purple hair down to her neck—spotted her. Ria held a hand up in greeting, and the girl nodded back with a sheepish smile. Ria wondered if she should get up and talk to them, perhaps ask her new classmates if they could sit with them. Would that make things worse?

"Well, well, if it isn't Class A!" she heard a voice say from behind her, interrupting her train of thought. A few people around the table groaned, and Ria turned around to see a blonde boy staring down at her.

Sero propped his head on his palm, unimpressed. "Come on, Monoma, haven't you had your fill of mocking us from this morning?"

"Nonsense! I will _never_ get enough of mocking you," he said, resting his hand on his chest with a flourished gesture, "But no, I'm here for a different reason."

Ria blinked when she realized that he now held his hand out to her. He flashed her a smile that she could not understand. "Monoma Neito. It's very nice to meet you." She regarded him for a moment before shaking his hand.

"Careful, he's kind of a nut job," Jirou said, taking a spoonful of her pudding.

Monoma laughed loudly, only to stop a few seconds later, his face completely calm. Ria's brows rose at the abrupt change of his expressions, wondering if she had seen him before. If she had, it was probably at the sports festival.

"Monoma…"she wondered aloud before her gaze snapped up to him again. "I remember now. You're the one with the Copy quirk, aren't you?"

"Very good!" he said, "It appears you've heard of me already. That puts us on an even playing field."

"Pardon?" Ria asked.

Ojiro sighed. "Here we go…"

"Well, I've been doing research on you as well," he explained, "Hikari Ria. Sixteen years old, daughter of heroine Halley Comet and Kai Hikari, the owner of a theatre. You were top of your class in your previous high school, then you transferred to U.A. And your quirk…"

He held his palm out, and she watched as he absorbed the light of a nearby lightbulb. An orb of light manifested in his palm, and he let it hover there, smirking. "…Appears to have something to do with the manipulation of light energy."

"Wow," Ria ground out, forcing a smile on her face, "I suppose I no longer have to introduce myself then."

Ashido leaned over to whisper to Tsuyu. "Stalker…"

"It's a shame," Monoma said, "You would have made such a wonderful addition to Class B."

"Alright, that's enough," another voice interjected. "Can't you stop harassing Class A for long enough to let me eat lunch, Monoma?"

"Yeah, man," said a guy with grey hair and sharp teeth, "You sounded like a real creep when you said all that."

"Hey guys!" Kirishima greeted. "Hikari, this is Tetsutetsu, and that's Kendo. They're from Class B too."

"Nice to meet you," Ria nodded.

"Wow!" Kendo said, "I haven't seen another red-head like me in a _while_. Your hair's a bit darker than mine, but I say that we could use a few more gingers in this school."

Ria looked down at her own hair in thought. Kendo seemed friendly enough, and the rest of Class A didn't seem to mind her and Tetsutetsu being around.

"Kendo! Don't compliment the enemy." Monoma argued. Tetsutetsu rolled his eyes.

"Come on, man. You sound even crazier than normal."

"I am not! U.A. attains a new hero department student in her first year, and she goes to Class A? It's not fair, I tell you!"

"What are you talking about?" Kendo said, crossing her arms. "We had the same amount of students. She probably just went to Class A because their class name literally come before us in the alphabet."

"I think that's absurd! Class A always gets all the attention, and now they have a new student too!"

Tetsutetsu sighed. "I really don't think that matters, Dude."

"It does! They're gaining more attention and unwarranted popularity as we speak. It's a conspiracy, I tell you! A conspiracy—" He was finally cut off when Kendo hit him with a well-placed karate chop to his neck. His body went limp.

"Should've done that earlier," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry about him. He's a little too serious about this kind of stuff."

Ria shook her head. "It's fine. He's very…spirited."

"That's one way of putting it," Uraraka mumbled.

"Anyway," Kendo said, grabbing the back of Monoma's collar. "I'll go get this guy back to our table. If you ever want to dress up as twins for Halloween, I think we would look really cool as the Measly twins."

"Alright," Ria replied evenly, "I'll let you know if I get invited to any Halloween parties."

Kendo grinned and nodded. "Come on, Tetsutetsu. Let's go."

* * *

As interesting as her lunch period had been, the rest of the day had been relatively routine. There were no P.E. classes until tomorrow, so the entire day was spent with regular lecture classes. As a whole, Ria was pleasantly surprised to find out that she wasn't completely lacking when it came to general study subjects. She was a bit behind on Hero History and Hero Laws, but a bit more studying on her end would probably remedy that. If anything, she expected the gap in education to come when they got to actual training. For now, though, she felt content as she walked back to the dorm with the majority of her classmates.

"The 'troubled students' that they talked about this morning are from Class A?" Ria's brows rose up in surprise.

"Yeah…" Sero said sheepishly.

"I suppose that explains the two empty chairs this morning."

Iida held up a hand in front of him, slicing the air. "It was very foolish of them."

"Yes, it was," Yaoyorozu agreed, nodding. "They could have gotten severely punished for fighting like that."

"A few months after the provisional exam too," Kaminari noted, "They were lucky Aizawa-sensei didn't expel them this time."

"Hey, guys," Uraraka chimed in, waving her hands around. "Stop it! You're giving Hikari a bad first impression of them."

"Yeah!" Kirishima said. He grinned at her. "Don't think about it too much, Hikari. They're cool guys."

"Deku is really nice," Uraraka smiled. Ria tilted her head. _Deku…?_

"I don't think he's the one she has to worry about anyway," Shoji noted.

"It'll be _fine_!" Kirishima said, laughing heartily, "Bakugou could probably care less."

Whether she intended or not, Ria's smile carried the tiniest bit of warmth. It would take a fool not to see how much this class cared about each other, especially if they were defending two of their own for breaking the rules. _They don't know why they were fighting, and yet they don't care._

"Don't worry," she found herself saying, "I'm sure that they're great."

They rounded a corner, and Ria's lips parted in shock when she came face to face with the dorm building. She stopped walking and simply stared at it for a moment. "This is our dorm building?" she breathed out.

There was laughter all around her. "Yeah, we all said the same thing when we first got here," Sato said.

"U.A. has a lot of money," Uraraka interjected again, "Welcome to swanky living."

She nodded slowly, still eyeing the structure. "Right."

They proceeded to shuffle inside the building, some of them dropping their things to a nearby table while others proceeded to plop down onto the nearest seats they could get to. Ria set her bag down on a coffee table in the living room and began to study the map of the building. Iida and Yaoyorozu were at her side, explaining various house rules and goings on within the dorm.

"It looks like we will be staying on the same floor," Yaoyorozu had said, clapping two hands together with a smile. "Feel free to come to me for anything. I am vice president of Class A, after all."

Ria nodded back at her with a small smile of her own. "Now, Hikari, if you will follow us, we can proceed to show you around the building more fully and—"

An explosion rung out above them, and Ria's head jerked up at the sound. For a moment, her blood froze. _Another explosion?_ She thought immediately. A part of her mind began running at the speed of light, and it took a large amount of willpower for her to remain still. Flashes of burnt rubble, knives, and blood entered her mind. She clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking. _I'm not there. I'm here. I'm safe. I'm okay…_

" _Iincho!"_

Something cold touched her arm, and Ria snapped her gaze up to meet blue and grey eyes staring into her own. She blinked slowly, tilting her head at him distractedly. Todoroki held out a bottle of apple juice, frosted over from where he had cooled it.

"It's Bakugou," he said quietly, allowing her to take the bottle from him.

 _Bakugou…_ she repeated the name in her mind, searching it for any answers. _Bakugou Katsuki_ , she remembered in a haze, _First place in the sport's festival. He needed to be strapped to the winner's podium. Quirk…_

Something in her brain clicked. _Quirk: Explosion._

Todoroki quietly watched her, seeming to gauge her reaction. Ria had stared at the apple juice blankly, as Iida and Yaoyorozu spoke about the possible reasons Bakugo had been going off again. Soon, the fog cleared in Ria's eyes. She looked up from the apple juice and nodded at him slowly.

"Of course," she agreed pleasantly. Her hand lifted the bottle in her hands slightly, bringing attention to it. "Thank you."

He nodded in response, before stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking to a nearby couch. Ria unscrewed the cap to take a sip. Above them, the booming sounds got louder, and though her hands twitched at every explosion, she felt better knowing what they were. A few minutes later, stomping footsteps began coming down the stairs.

"Alright, where is she?" a voice bellowed, getting nearer. "Where is the fucking new girl?"

"Kacchan!" a panicked voiced came behind him.

"Shut up, Deku!"

Bakugou came barreling down the stairs then, scanning the common area. His eyes landed on an unfamiliar head of orange hair and began charging towards it. There was a brief flicker of recognition in his eyes, but it was gone a second later. He jabbed a finger in Ria's direction, snarling.

" _You_ ," he said menacingly, "You are fucking dead, New Girl."

* * *

 **Hope you enjoyed!**

 **I do not own BnHA**


	3. Mask

**Aaaand, we're back. This is technically part two to the previous chapter, but I figured I'd post it on its own instead.**

 **Hope you enjoy! I do not own** **BnHA**

 **Chapter published** **on:** **2/6/2019**

* * *

Bakugou was fucking pissed.

He wasn't a fucking idiot. He knew why he was stuck at the dorms with nothing to do but clean, and he knew why he was locked away while the rest of the extras got to go to school and learn shit. It was his own damn fault, so don't even think about reminding him about the fact. He was one step ahead of you. He knew.

That didn't mean he had to like it.

Plus he had to spend the day with _Deku_. That in itself would have been punishment enough. He didn't care about what happened with him and All Might or how he now knew Deku's stupid-ass secret. They weren't friends.

Deku was just slightly more tolerable now.

The point was, his day was already going to be shitty. _Of course_ , Aizawa had to make it worse.

They had just finished vacuuming the first floor of the building when the front door opened. The moment Bakugou saw a clipboard instead of a yellow sleeping bag in their sensei's hands, he knew they were about to deal with some shit. Bakugou looked out the front door, glaring when he saw a truck parked in front of their building.

"We have a new student joining our class today," Aizawa said as workers started bringing down boxes from the vehicle.

"A new student?" Deku chimed in, "I wonder who it could be."

"You'll get to meet her later tonight," their sensei answered cryptically, "But for now, I have a task for you two."

"A task?" Bakugou deadpanned, eyeing the boxes. Aizawa looked over both him and Deku, bored.

"Take them to the spare room beside Yaoyorozu's," was all he said, walking away before either of them could say anything and-more importantly-before Bakugou could yell about it.

Aizawa called out, "Think of it as additional weight training."

And thus began the annoying and really _stupid_ task of lugging the new girl's stuff up to her room.

By the time most of the house was finally clean, and the last box was transferred, Bakugou was fucking _done_. Fuck Aizawa. Fuck Deku. Fuck the new girl. And fuck _him_ for bringing this on himself. He slammed the last box onto the ground when he heard a commotion from outside the window. The extras were back.

"Kacchan!" Deku called out when he began jabbing his thumb into the elevator button, "What are you doing?"

"Shut up, Deku!" Bakugou yelled out, his lips quirking into a maniacal grin. "I'm going to meet the new girl."

"What?! Why?"

"Dammit! This thing is taking too fucking long. I'm taking the stairs."

And with that, he began stomping his way down. Deku ran after him, _because of course he did_ , and Bakugou snarled, picking up the pace.

"Kacchan, stop!" Deku cried, "If Aizawa-sensei finds out, you could get punished even worse this time!"

Bakugou grunted, ignoring him. Like he said, he _knew_ what his situation was. He knew that he was on thin ice, that he could get expelled for doing something stupid.

But _he_ wasn't stupid. He was just very fucking angry.

He just wanted to say hi.

The footsteps behind him grew closer, and he his eyes rolled so hard that he swore they'd roll into the back of his skull. Deku continued to say things, and Bakugou continued to tune them out.

"I'm not going to do anything." And he meant it. More or less. He didn't care who the fucking new girl was, he wasn't going to get expelled over her. Not to mention, he wasn't interested in dealing with his classmates bitching if he ended up traumatizing her. She was from one of those schools that blew up, wasn't she?

Deku didn't seem to believe him though, judging by how fast he ran after him. Not that Bakugou was surprised. It did, however, piss him off.

And suddenly, he was flying down the stairs. He took big leaps from the top of each floor, his hands stretching behind him and sending out small explosions that propelled him forward. They had to be small because _fuck_ if he was going to leave soot from his blasts and clean _again_. The booming sound echoed through the walls. He was pretty sure he left Deku behind in his wake and was at least one floor ahead of him.

Finally, he got to the bottom of the staircase. Ignoring the looks of everyone around him, Bakugou cast a deadly gaze around the room for anyone he didn't recognize.

"Alright, where is she?" he yelled, "Where is the fucking new girl?"

Then he saw her. It wasn't hard; it's not like Class A had any other gingers. He paused in his tracks for a moment as recognition clicked in his brain. He remembered parts of that day. It was an annoying day for him because they went to class, only for it to be suspended an hour later. It was even worse for other people, obviously. The image flashed in his mind, of her fighting amidst rubble and fire in a fight that was so outmatched, it was almost laughable that she didn't run away.

She was the new girl, huh?

This should be fun.

* * *

"You are fucking dead, New Girl."

Ria watched in interest as Bakugou shoved past both Iida and Yaoyorozu furiously, ignoring their protests and scolding. He marched on, until he stood in front of her, staring her down. She looked back up at him curiously, twisting the cap of her apple juice bottle closed. And then his hand swiped up, making to grab at the collar of her blazer.

Bakugou blinked when she dodged him quickly, slipping just out of his reach.

"Sorry?" Ria tipped her head slightly, brows furrowing in confusion. As far as introductions went, this was a first for her. Bakugou scoffed.

"Aizawa told us to move all your shit up to your room, on the _fifth fucking floor_ ," he seethed, "You just had to be on the top floor, didn't you?"

"Why didn't you guys just use the elevator?" Jiro asked, placing her hands on her hips. Bakugou whirled around to look at her, his posture almost resembling a feral dog.

"Shut up! How dumb do you think I am? Aizawa told us to use the fucking stairs."

"Oh," Ria frowned slightly, "I'm sorry. I wasn't aware that he would make you do that."

"Kacchan!" A panicked voice said from the staircase, "It's our fault for fighting anyway. This is part of the punishment!"

Messy green hair bounced with each step as a figure descended down the stairs at a frantic pace. Ria's eyes locked onto the dark green of his eyes, instantly identifying him. She surmised that he probably recognized her as well, judging by the way he froze when he saw her.

"Y-you're Hikari Ria!" He exclaimed in shock. "You're the new student?"

"Yes," she said back calmly, flashing a small smile. "And you're Midoriya Izuku, right? I enjoyed watching you at the sport's festival."

"O-oh!" he said, reaching behind to scratch the back of his head. He flushed slightly at the recognition. "Thanks."

"Get in line, Deku!" Bakugou yelled, still very much angry, "I get to kick her ass first."

Before anyone could object further, he lunged for her. A small explosion went off in his fist, and Ria flinched before jumping back again where he couldn't reach her. Her back hit a pillar, and she had to duck as another explosion flew over her head. By then, the rest of their class had gathered by them to watch.

"Bakugou!" Iida yelled, trying to get in between them. "Cease this immediately!"

"Yeah, man," Kirishima exclaimed, stepping in as well to shield Ria from his friend's antics, "Couldn't you wait until P.E. to spar with her?"

"I don't think that helps, Kirishima," Ojiro said.

Bakugou didn't answer either of them and instead sent a small explosion Iida's way while he bypassed Kirishima with ease. Ria pushed her hands in front of her, as though the apple juice she was grasping would make a suitable shield from Bakugou's attacks.

"I don't really…" she said, sliding behind a dining table, "…want to fight you."

"Too bad."

She huffed. From the onset, it was evident that he wasn't actually trying to hurt her too badly. The amount of power she had seen him expend on TV made his current display of anger look like nothing. Ria winced as he threw another explosion past her, the sound sending a shudder down her spine. _That one nearly got me._

"Should we be trying harder to stop them?" Jiro asked. They had been going on for a decent amount of time, with Bakugou attacking and Ria simply dodging blow after blow. Beside her, Shoji's eyes closed in contemplation.

"It doesn't seem like he'll stop unless we tie him up again."

Kirishima scratched the back of his head. "I guess he got all worked up from staying home all day."

"At least Hikari's still alive," Ashido noted.

"Stop dodging already!" Bakugou yelled, "Don't you have a quirk or something?"

Ria sighed. She was not sure why he was so intent on chasing her around. She didn't think that she had brought that much stuff to warrant such a reaction, but clearly, she was wrong. Maybe she should be thankful though. Perhaps a part of her preferred this reaction to the others she had been receiving lately.

She figured she'd humor him.

"Yes, I do," Ria said finally.

And just like that, all the lights in the surrounding area flew to her. The entire first floor of their building plunged into darkness.

"What the—" Kaminari exclaimed, "Why are the lights out?"

"My phone died too!" Hagakure shrieked.

"I can't see anything!"

Ria moved in the dark quietly, taking quick steps towards the staircase. Her eyes squinted with the effort, not quite used to seeing in such low lighting yet. She tried to remember where everything was, taking advantage of the commotion from her new classmates when she bumped into a few things. She'd return the lights once she was upstairs and away from everyone. Hopefully, Bakugou would think it too troublesome to come after her. If not, she could lock herself away in her room and come downstairs later on.

She probably would have made it, had she not been holding a bottle in her hands.

It wasn't long until the noise around her died down enough that she had to maintain a certain level of quiet. However, in her haste, she moved too quickly, causing the apple juice to _swish_ in her hands. Bakugou smirked, turning around to where she had then stood a few feet away from him. "There you are," he growled.

His hand came towards her, and Ria turned around only fast enough for him to grasp her arm. In the dark, she could make out the tiny crackles of light that came from his palm. She froze when they quickly came towards her.

Immediately, her hands shot out in front of her, lighting up as she began to use her quirk to deflect his.

A _splash_ rang out in the room, and Ria blinked as liquid erupted in front of her. Bakugou let out a grunt of surprise. "What the hell did you do?"

She returned the lights then, squinting at the sudden brightness that the room took on. Looking down at her uniform, she realized that the front of her blazer had been soaked through.

 _Apple juice_ , she recognized, pieces coming together in her mind. Her gaze traveled down to the puddle that was on the floor and the broken plastic bottle that now lay half-burning on the ground.

Her arm suddenly burned, and Ria looked up in surprise to a very angry Bakugou, his shirt and hair now drenched with apple juice as well.

"Oh…"

"What the fuck!"

Their classmates had decided that _that_ was a very good time to hold Bakugou back.

"I'm not cleaning that up!" he yelled as he was being restrained.

* * *

Ria sat down on her desk chair with a tired sigh, swiveling around in her seat to survey her room.

The space was really starting to come together. Uraraka was kind enough to help her move furniture inside with her quirk, so once all of it was placed down, all Ria had left to do was unpack. She had gone through the boxes with essential items before she finally decided to take a break for the night. Having filled three trash bags already, she knew better than to try to unpack everything in a single night.

She looked up at the wall above her desk, smiling fondly as a few wooden picture frames hung in front of her. Photos of her mom and dad, Hiro, Hana, and a few others looked back at her, reminding her to work hard.

And on her desk sat a single framed picture. It was the only one that held a white frame. The only one that she wouldn't immediately see when she came into her room. As she looked down at it, her classmates smiled back at her, the calm riverbank behind them.

 _Former classmates._

Grabbing the trash bags, she made her way out of her room and strode towards the elevators.

"Hikari-chan!" Someone said as the doors opened. A floating uniform raised an arm up at her, and Ria figured that Hagakure was waving. Beside her, Ojiro and Jiro greeted her kindly.

"Hello," Ria said pleasantly as she got in.

"Looks like you got yourself cleaned up," Jiro commented, taking in her change outfit. She snickered at Ria. "I can't believe you spilled juice on Bakugou."

Ria smiled back sheepishly. "That was an accident."

"Well yeah, but did you see his face?" Ojiro said, amused.

"It was kind of scary!" Hagakure agreed. The elevator stopped and they got off to the first floor.

"Hmm? What's this dust Bakugou?" Ria heard someone taunt. Going into the common area, she found Sero and Mineta huddling by a window in laughter. Bakugou shook with frustration.

"Deku was supposed to do that shit, fuck off!" he shouted. Turning towards Midoriya, who had been crouching down and tying off various garbage bags, Bakugou barked, "Hey! Can't you even clean properly?"

"S-sorry!"

Bakugou caught sight of her coming in and snarled as he eyed her trash bags. "You're the reason this place is so fucking messy! Your shit made us track dust everywhere!"

She nodded. "My apologies."

More footsteps came behind them as more people began pooling into the common area. Ashido stretched her arms over her head with a sigh, Sato walking beside her as he rubbed a knot in his neck. "Man, I'm beat," he groaned.

"Oh, everyone!" Midoriya stood up. "Put the trash from your rooms out. I'll take it."

There were a few mutters of agreement. Sato and Ashido walked over to Kirishima, who had been on the couch. Sato leaned over on the cushions. "Hey about Present Mic's class…"

"You too, huh?" Kirishima said glumly.

"He just started talking about grammar that we didn't even learn yet," Sato continued with a frown. Ria watched as Midoriya's attention caught onto them and their conversation.

"Hey, about the internships… I never got an offer," Jiro said beside her, "I wonder if I can still do it. Maybe the office that let me come in for workplace experience will let me intern there again."

"I want to do it too!" Hagakure chimed in.

"Hey Hikari, what do you think about the internships?" Ojiro asked her.

 _I think I absolutely have to do it._ She tipped her head in thought, her gaze landing on the ceiling. "I think it's really exciting that U.A. has a system like that," she admitted, fumbling at the trash bags in her hands. "It would be great to join, but I don't exactly have the same connections that you guys have from the sports festival either."

"I guess that's true," Jiro said, crossing her arms over her chest in thought. "Maybe you can try emailing agencies though. You never know."

"Though, it seems like a pretty intense thing to do since you just got into U.A," Ojiro commented.

 _I've got to catch up to everyone somehow._ She smiled easily at him, her expression bordering between calm and slightly eerie. "I like diving head-first."

A look passed on Ojiro's face that Ria was not sure showed whether he was impressed or unsettled by her response. She shrugged at him and continued to smile anyway as he continued talking to Jiro and Hagakure. Ria glanced around, distracted. Some of their conversation filtered through her ears, and she kept half of her attention on them. But, what kept her from listening was the sensation she felt in the back of her head. It wasn't that of discomfort, but she knew the feeling. Ria knew that she was being watched.

She glanced over her shoulder and caught sight of a messy mop of dark green. Midoriya was not specifically staring at her, but rather, their group. A look of concern and agitation crossed his features as his eyes glazed over in worry.

Slowly, she made her way over to him, dragging her trash bags with her. "Midoriya?" she called out gently.

His eyes snapped up to look at her, alertness coming back to his eyes. "Oh, Hikari! I can take that for you if you want."

She paused, hesitating slightly. Shaking her thoughts aside, she beamed at him. "Are you…alright?"

Midoriya opened his mouth to answer her, when Iida slid up to them, his hands making what appeared to be his signature chopping motions. "What's that face you're making, Mr. House Arrest?"

Midoriya turned to him, aghast. "Don't call me that! That's mean!"

"Very harsh indeed." Ria nodded decisively. Midoriya smiled at her sheepishly, scratching his cheek in thought.

"Um, guys? What's the internship everyone is talking about?" he asked.

Ria let out a breath, expression becoming sympathetic. "I'm sorry, Midoriya. I wish I could tell you, but—"

"Do not feel sorry for him!" Iida exclaimed.

"Iida—"

Iida shot him a stern glare, disappointment flashing in his indigo eyes. For a moment, Ria wondered if he would be using his robotic hand to smack Midoriya upside his head, but he did no such thing. "I am angry! We have been forbidden by the teachers to tell you anything about our classes! Sorry, but you two need to fully experience that feeling you have now," he said, scolding. Turning his head, he regarded Bakugou, who had clearly been listening in on their conversation. "Did you hear that Bakugou?"

"Shut up! I got it, damned Four Eyes!" Bakugou yelled. He turned to glance back at them, ruby eyes glaring at her fiercely. "What are you looking at, New Girl?"

"You, it seems," Ria sighed.

"What was that?"

"Nevermind," she said, turning away from him. She didn't miss the growl he let out in response. Ignoring it, she turned once again to her mossy haired classmate. "Midoriya, I can help you bring all this trash out. I think I contributed quite a lot to it."

He waved his arms frantically at her, eyes growing wide in like saucers. "No! It's fine. If anything, I can just make two trips. It's not far."

"I need to know where the trash disposal is anyway," Ria explained reassuringly, "It's no trouble."

"O-oh, alright! Thanks!"

* * *

Red and orange tinted the sky, basking the world around her in warm light. Ria smiled contentedly at the sight of it. She always thought that the sky was one of the most magnificent things that nature had to offer. It was always so unbelievably, so _impossibly_ beautiful no matter the time of day. It constantly changed as well and offered something different every few hours.

Every time she looked up, it gave her a sense of peace to see art in the skies. Sunsets, in particular, were special to her. They usually felt like a last opportunity to recharge her quirk with natural light…to get something useful done outside while it was still easy to see, or to simply watch the world transition into night time.

Sunsets made her want to not waste the opportunities she still had left in a day.

"You seem to have a lot on your mind right now," she finally said aloud. "If you don't mind me saying."

Deep down, she knew that she was not really going to ignore it. She and Midoriya had only been walking for a short while, and though they started talking casually with small talk, they soon lapsed into a relatively comfortable silence. She was fine with this. Ria was never one to talk a lot anyway. But, it was hard not to notice Midoriya's expression, crumpled with worry. Perhaps it was her old habits that made her notice. She wasn't sure. She did know, however, that whatever it could be was enough to prompt her to talk to him about it.

Dark green eyes snapped up to look at her in surprise, arms gripping the trash bags tighter almost bashfully.

"O-oh, sorry!" Midoriya stuttered. He offered her a nervous laugh. "I guess I was thinking about how much everyone's already learned in just a day."

Ria nodded at him. "I can understand that," she said, her voice emphatic. "It's only been the first day, and yet I feel like everyone is miles ahead of me."

 _It just means I need to work harder than I ever have before_ , she thought to herself somewhat coldly, eyes lighting up in fierce determination for a brief second.

Midoriya paused for a moment, stopping in his tracks. Ria turned back to him in curiosity.

"Midoriya?"

"I don't think that's true," he told her calmly. His mouth opened in surprise, like he had just told her something he didn't intend to say. He blinked various times, and had this arms not been full she expected they would be flailing around frantically. Ria could practically hear the gears turning in his head as he seemed to nervously come up with something to say next.

Finally, he sighed and turned his gaze to lock with hers. "We watched your video on the news," he said hesitantly.

Ria nodded. "Yes, it looks like many people did," she answered gently, reassuringly. She expected it.

Midoriya inclined his head, choosing his words carefully. "But you know, it inspired me."

"Inspired you?" Ria wondered.

"Yeah," Midoriya said nodding his head vigorously. "The odds were kind of stacked against you. And you kept going, fighting alone even when it didn't look good."

 _But I wasn't alone,_ she thought. Memories of smiling faces and blood and light green hair flooded her mind. Her throat tightened as she pushed them away. "I think you should save your admiration for the pros that were brave and strong enough to come and end the situation quickly."

"I do!" Midoriya exclaimed in surprise. "I thought they were all really great!"

"They really were."

"Yeah. I just… I admire you too," he said shyly, staring at the ground.

 _You shouldn't._

Ria smiled at him, plastering the mask on her face once again. Eventually, he glanced up to look at her, and he smiled back hesitantly.

"I don't think you need to worry about falling behind today," she said finally, and they resumed walking once again. "I don't believe that it will be that difficult to catch up, unless you don't like studying."

Midoriya nodded, though he did not seem any more relieved than he had been mere seconds before.

"I cannot be sure what will be happening tomorrow, but—"

There were a great many things that Ria had seen and heard of in her life. One of the things about being in a society filled with super-human beings meant that anything was possible. Animals could mutate and communicate with humans, people were born invisible, and people could turn their noses green if they wished. Really, sometimes what was limiting was not the possibilities of their world but rather, one's imagination to think of them.

This was the world they lived in.

However, even _she_ could not have expected that she would come across a face protruding from a wall on their way to the trash disposal area.

She saw it from the corner of her eye first. In her surprise, she barely took note that Midoriya had stopped walking alongside her as well. Slowly and _stiffly_ , they turned to look at the face.

It parted its lips to smile at them.

"Trash is that-a-way!" he said cheerfully. Suddenly, a hand came out of the wall as well and proceeded to point in the direction they were headed. "It's fine if you throw out food trays and stuff into the burnables."

"Ah…Right." Midoriya said slowly, jaw dropped in shock

The face nodded enthusiastically before disappearing within the wall again. For a moment, both of them continued to stare at the empty space in complete and honest confusion.

"I think I'm finally going insane," Ria breathed out.

Midoriya jerked his head to look at her. "But I saw him too!"

"Perhaps we are both going mad then," she lamented softly, eyes closing in thought.

"So you are the problem child, right? And the new hero transfer as well!" a voice said from beneath them.

"Gah!" Ria heard Midoriya yelp as he jumped back. She froze in place, expression blank and incredibly _uncaring_ for the situation and the logic that was just thrown from it.

The face, now protruding from the ground in front of them, piped up again. "It must be my lucky day!" he bellowed enthusiastically, "I've been wanting to meet both of you."

"Meet us?" Ria repeated. The face rose up even more, exposing bright blonde hair and part of a neck that bent to nod vigorously at them.

"Yeah! Caught you off guard, did I? Guess that's my bad," he laughed loudly, eyes unblinking. It unnerved both of them. "Though I did it because it'd give you a spook."

Midoriya spluttered, his face aghast. "Who—What exactly are you?"

"Ha! That's a good question. I wonder that myself sometimes! I'm not sure I even know, and that's rare."

 _What on earth is going on right now?_ She stared back, speechless. _There is a face…in the ground._

"Ah well, you'll know about me soon enough," the face said when he faced their stunned and _thoroughly_ confused silence. "It's heartening to know you have the proper amount of prep."

"For now, all I can say is," he continued, "The rumors about you had me curious, so I thought I'd come to take a look."

And with that, he left, face sinking into the ground once again. For a moment, both Ria and Midoriya stood there quietly, gripping trash bags that they'd been holding for an eternity at this point.

"What the heck…" Midoriya finally said softly, "…was that?"

Ria cleared her throat, "U.A. has some very interesting characters."

* * *

"So, the rules are simple! We all ask Hikari-chan one question each, but we have to answer the same question for ourselves too. Does everyone get it?" Uraraka explained, pumping a fist in the air.

Dinner had ended by now, and most of them had moved to the living room to sit around and chat. For a good portion of the night, Ria had spent some time getting to know her classmates and answering their questions as well. Most of the questions she was being asked at that point were by her female classmates, who all joined her on the couch.

At some point, Kaminari had complained about not being able to ask her anything, with all the other stories that were being talked about. This then led the rest of the girls to create a new game out of getting to know her.

Tokoyami put a hand to his chin in thought, "This implies that we must think of our questions carefully then."

"Yup!" Ashido chimed in, "So don't ask anything you don't want to answer!"

"A truth game with a twist, huh?" Sero said, "I'm in!"

"Wait, everyone!" Iida said, flailing his arms, "We must be considerate of Hikari's feelings! She may be averse to answering so many questions."

"Yes," Yaoyorozu agreed, "We should make sure she is fine with this idea first."

Ria smiled pleasantly, nodding at the two class officers in gratitude. "I'm alright, you two. Thank you."

"Oh, alright then," Iida said. He then stood up abruptly, excitement bounding in his entire body. "The game shall now begin then!"

"He seems like the most excited one though," Kaminari commented wryly.

Asui put a hand up when Iida finally settled down. "I will start then," she said, "Hikari-chan, how would you like us to call you?"

"Just Ria is fine," was the easy reply, "Though if some of you would like to refer to me with my last name, I don't really mind."

Asui nodded, poking her finger into the corner of her mouth. "Ria-chan it is then," she said, "To answer my own question, you may call me Tsuyu."

"Alright then, Tsuyu," Ria said kindly.

"You can call me Ochako too!"

"And me, Tooru!"

Ria nodded at them, smiling brightly. "Okay."

"Alright, who's next?"

Thus began a whole other round of questions thrown her way. Ria was quite surprised to find how _normal_ they were. Though all of her classmates had been nothing but nice and considerate of her that past day, a part of her half-expected to be asked more serious questions. She realized that the rules of this game were probably designed to be considerate of her, but so many people and so much of the press had asked her so many things when she went out that that it was almost odd that these people weren't.

And yet, for every question being asked, Ria found herself growing a little more at ease.

"When's your birthday?"

"What's your favorite color?"

"Favorite food?"

"Favorite desserts?"

"What kind of music do you like listening to?"

"Are you as dazzling as _moi_?"

"What kind of panties do you—ack!"

"He doesn't get to ask a question," Jiro said dryly, her earphone jack connecting with the back of Mineta's head. Many people hummed in agreement.

"Alright, who's next?" Ashido wondered, looking around the haphazard circle they had made, "Midoriya!"

The green-haired boy perked up at the mention of his name, hand on his chin in thought. "What exactly is your quirk, Hikari?"

She tilted her head at him in interest, while he continued, "I know we've seen you use it, but I've been wondering what it is specifically."

"Hmm," Uraraka intoned, "I admit I'm a bit curious too."

Ria nodded. It was a good question. "Well," she started, "The short answer is that my quirk is Light Manipulation."

She held her palm up, and in a split second, all of the lights in their first floor flew from their respective sources and gathered into a ball at her palm. Around them, they were plunged into darkness once again, save for the orb of light that now floated in Ria's hand.

Her face illuminated in the dark, as did the forms of Yaoyorozu and Uraraka, who sat on either side of her. "I can take out any light source and move the light around. Or, I could absorb it. If I do, it then converts itself into energy that I can use to attack people with."

She let the orb float to the center of their circle, expanding it slightly to illuminate more faces. "I can also control how strong and how bright it comes out. I used to just be able to light places up, but I eventually found out that there was a combat possibility to it."

"Whoa!" Hagakure exclaimed. The sleeves of her shirt stretched forward, and Ria presumed that she was extending her hands to the small warmth of the orb. "It's like a campfire!"

Ria smiled, tapping a finger to her lips in thought. "The way I like to explain it is to compare myself to a plant. Plants go through a process called photosynthesis," she explained, "They take sunlight and nutrients from the soil, then they make oxygen. I'm kind of the same way. I need stamina and a light source. Then I expel energy instead of oxygen."

With a flick of her wrist, the lights shot out from her orb and all lighting fixtures regained their brightness, save for a lamp that sat near her. The room was illuminated once again. "I can also return it back to where it came from."

"And if I wanted to absorb this light," she said, allowing what was left of her orb to continue floating in her hand. It sunk right into her skin. She then reached over Yaoyorozu to press on the lamp's switch, watching it light up once again. "All I have to do is turn it back on."

"I see! So this was how you were able to darken the room a while ago! It also explains why you are also able to blind your opponents with bright light. The quirk has many combat and escape possibilities, though it may fall short with rescue missions. There are possible disadvantages that could possibly hinder it, such as darkness. You could probably absorb light from the moon and the stars, but this becomes impossible should it be cloudy outside. Of course, you could try carrying a light source with you, but…"

Ria blinked as a series of mutters and murmurings rang out from Midoriya's lips. His hand rested over his mouth, and his shoulders hunched down in thought. Her lips parted in surprise, trying to catch each word he said about her quirk as he analyzed it thoroughly. _He managed to figure all of that out in a matter of seconds!_

"Midoriya does that a lot," Uraraka said, smiling from beside her, "You'll get used to it."

"Oh!" Midoriya said, letting his words come to a halt, "Sorry about that!"

"That's very impressive," was all Ria could say, eyebrows raising in awe.

"You should see his notebook," Kaminari said, "He's got thirteen of them, all on different heroes and their quirks."

"Yeah," Sero said, "We're in there too. Midoriya has all sorts of drawings of us."

Midoriya waved his hands in embarrassment. "H-Hey!"

"Oh come on," Ashido laughed, "It's actually really impressive!"

"I agree!" Iida said, "One can learn a lot by borrowing Midoriya's notebooks."

"Noted," Ria said with a smile.

"But hey!" Kirishima said, "That seems like a pretty handy quirk! You could technically put out fires in a burning building then, right? That sounds like it has a lot of rescue potential to me."

"Unfortunately, that's not how it works," she answered, doing her best to keep the bitter edge out of her voice. "I can absorb light and convert it, but that's about it."

Jiro tipped her head, brows furrowed in confusion. "But isn't light a big part of the fires though?"

"Not really. I can create heat, but I can't absorb it," Ria sighed, "If you light a candle, I can absorb its light, but most of the heat from the fire will still be there," she explained, "You just won't be able to see it. If anything, I would just be making the fires invisible."

"Invisible fires, huh? Sounds like it would be a good trap though," Shoji noted.

"Yeah!" Kaminari said, "We could totally use Todoroki to light some fires, then have Hikari make them invisible! It would be a really cool tactic!"

"Unless we had civilians in the way," Jiro said flatly, laughing as Kaminari shot her a look.

"Is there a particular limitation to your quirk?" Tokoyami asked, raising a hand in assurance, "I shall answer the question as well, of course."

"Alright," Ria said, "Well, as Midoriya already mentioned, it's not a good quirk to have when I'm in the dark because my light will eventually run out. I can absorb light from the stars and the moon, but only if I see it. Those lights are also much weaker than the sun."

"I see," he said, crossing his arms over his chest, "It appears that we are opposites, as I have deduced. My quirk makes it so that I am weak to very bright light."

Ria nodded, keeping note of the information in her head for later. "Taking light in and out of my body also affects my body temperature and needs to be regulated, but that's another complicated matter."

"Perhaps I shall find out more about it as we train," Tokoyami said, "It would be interesting to battle against you."

Ria smirked, sharing a look with him. "I agree."

Soon enough, she broke her gaze and turned back to Midoriya. "Anyway, Midoriya, I think you still have to explain your own quirk. I hope it's become more…" she tried to look for the words "…controlled since I saw it at the Sports Festival."

Midoriya straightened his back, shooting her an embarrassed look. "You saw that, huh?"

Ria nodded, "I did. The last battle you had before you were eliminated was actually one of my favorites," she said, eyes landing on Todoroki who seemed to perk up at the mention.

"Many things have changed since then," he said cryptically.

"I'll say," Sero said, clapping a hand over Todoroki's back, "For one thing, you actually talk to people now. You used to ignore all of us unless it was for class."

"That is true," Todoroki agreed calmly. Ria nodded, smiling. _I'm glad._

"So?" she wondered, turning back to Midoriya, "Has it? Gotten better, I mean."

"It has," Midoriya answered, looking down at his hands. He seemed to consider his next words properly. "Back then, I couldn't control it very well. When I concentrate my quirk in certain parts of my body, I can become really strong and really fast."

"Super strength and super speed," Ria said, her voice teasing, "The classic hero quirks. Kind of like All Might, I guess."

Upon hearing the name, Midoriya froze, eyebrows raising for a second before he sheepishly waved his arms around. "Yeah! He's kind of a role model to me!"

"Yup, Deku is a huge fan of his. You should see his room! It's filled with All Might's merch!" Ochako laughed. Midoriya turned as red as a tomato.

"Uraraka!"

"Well it's not like it's a secret, man," Kirishima said chuckling as well, "She would have found out eventually."

Midoriya sputtered out something that she didn't quite catch, as many people around their circle laughed. Ria leaned back onto the sofa, taking in various expressions and conversations. Many of them were poking fun at Midoriya, laughing as he tried to explain his situation. Some of them were merely watching, while others even conversed about other random things.

Soon enough, Midoriya seemed to give up on defending himself and simply joined everyone in the fun. Ria looked to all the faces in front of her, taking in their relaxed expressions and smiles. She did her best to join in when she was spoken to.

Her own face had been plastered over with a fake smile that began to ache at the muscles. And yet, a deep and very small part of her felt warm…felt happy for all these people in front of her and for the joy they had in that moment. Maybe that warmth may have even been something that would allow her to smile for real.

And yet, she kept the fake smile on. Because if she didn't, she feared her real smile would betray the emptiness she felt hollowed in her chest.

How sad, she'd thought to herself, that she would never feel that same type of joy ever again.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**


	4. Goosebumps

**Hullo, beautiful people!**

 **A bit of a disclaimer: Sometimes, I go back and edit previous chapters. It's usually grammatical stuff, but sometimes I go back and make small changes to plot mistakes that I noticed after the first edits. I will not, however, make giant changes to previous chapters, but if you see any small changes, it's probably because I read it back again and felt the need to nitpick.**

 **Chapter posted on: February 24, 2019 (PHT)**

* * *

Hikari Ria grew up in the theatre.

Literally. Ria would argue that for the first half of her life, she spent more time in her father's theatre than she had at home or at school. When she was a baby and her mother's maternity leave had ended, it was evident that Halley Comet—as strong-willed as she was and as much as it broke her heart—would be unable to care for her daughter while she was hunting down villains and bringing justice to the streets of Tokyo.

She would spend time with Ria the minute her shifts ended, of course. But for the most part, Ria's father was tasked with taking care of her.

This was something that brought him immense joy and fulfillment, and if he had to do it all over again, he was one hundred percent sure that he would do it in a heartbeat.

With that being said… Whenever he was asked which time in his career was the hardest and most stressful, Mr. Kaito "Kai" Hikari would consistently answer that it was the year his eldest child was born.

It painted a hilarious picture, really. As though being the owner of a theatre wasn't a hard enough job, he would soon find that being the owner of a theatre whilst _caring for a_ _baby_ was ten times worse.

He would often do his rounds with Ria strapped to his chest in a baby carrier, sporting perpetually mussed ginger hair and dark bags that hung under his eyes. In his hand, he almost always carried either a baby bottle or a cup of coffee. Or both. There were those days as well.

His assistant Kosei caught him putting the coffee in the baby bottle once, while the Ria's milk sat in a mug on the counter. Of course, Ria wouldn't know this. Furthermore, Kai made very sure that his wife hadn't heard about it either until _at least_ a year later.

Many people had suggested that Ria be left at a daycare, but at the time, neither of her parents had ever once thought about hiring help. There was no shame in doing it, they knew.

" _We just wanted to be there for all your first moments,"_ her dad would tell her.

And it wasn't as though they were completely alone. Comet's niece, Aki, was an artist who worked from home a lot. Whenever Ria's parents were too busy with work, Aki was usually the first person that would volunteer to babysit. Also, many of the staff at the theatre adored having a tiny baby around, so no one really had a problem with checking in on Ria when needed. Kosei almost never passed on the opportunity.

One of the dressing rooms beside Kai's office had even been converted into a soundproof room that held Ria's crib, and as she grew older, many of the employees would fondly tell her stories of times when both that her dad _and_ Kosei would run around with baby monitors strapped to their belts.

And as for Ria herself? She remained blissfully unaware of anything about the world.

It began with dancing.

Ria was five when she watched her first ballet. Swan Lake. It was an extremely busy night for the theatre, and her dad was running around the building to ensure that the show went on smoothly. He had given her a walkie-talkie in case she needed anything. The baby monitor was still there, but at that point in Ria's life, her father barely looked at the thing anymore.

She had been told to stay in her room for the night. As far as children went, Ria was a very obedient little girl and usually did what she was told. But, that night, she had grown bored with her toys and the four walls of her room. What's more, earlier that day, Kosei had told her the story of an adventurer girl named Nora the Explorer.

So really, it was Kosei's fault.

Filled with an abundance of childish curiosity, Ria's tiny head popped out of the room and remained unnoticed to everyone around her. Amidst the chaos of backstage, her grey eyes got one look at tutus, leotards, and ballet slippers.

And she fell in love.

So, before the curtains opened to the audience, she marched down from the stage entrance and climbed onto one of the empty orchestra seats. Many startled audience members stared at her in concern and probable confusion, but at that age, Ria didn't really care. Amongst the viewers, all dressed in their fancy dresses, suits, and jewelry, she sat in her elephant pajamas and fuzzy pink slippers.

The lights dimmed, then the curtains rose, and nothing else mattered.

No one paid enough attention to see how brightly her eyes lit up.

It was the middle of the intermission by the time her father finally found her. A breathless, sweaty, disheveled mess, he was much too glad to see her to be mad for long. His giant arms squeezed her so tight that she had to tell him that she couldn't breathe.

But, when he finally let her go, she beamed up at him with the biggest smile she'd ever given anyone.

" _Papa! I want to take ballet lessons!"_

And from then on, her world exploded into one of culture and art. Shows of various art forms were performed in her father's theatre, and Ria had various opportunities to watch anything she wanted. As long as her homework was done on time and as long as the content was appropriate for her age, her father let her watch any and every show. There were rare times he'd even direct some of the plays, and when those times came, she made sure that she always sat in her father's reserved seat in the front row.

At the same time, once she was enrolled in her ballet lessons, he'd go to her recitals or watch her at practices. It was a constant cycle for them to watch each other work and make their contributions to the world of art. Later on, Ria would switch from ballet dancing to contemporary, but her father was always her constant supporter in all things of the performing arts.

Never once did she ever want to be a hero.

It wasn't as though she thought anything bad about the job, of course. If anything, she was incredibly proud to call Halley Comet, the 25th ranking hero at the time, her mother. Kids at school often told her about how cool they thought her mom was, and Ria would grin and brag about it. Her mother would laugh whenever Ria came home from school and told her all the things they said.

And yet, she would always remind them, " _Without my costume, I'm Mom, okay? Not Comet."_

Still, sometimes Ria would see the pride shine in her mother's eyes any time she'd tell her about how cool some of her stories were. She and her sister usually huddled together on the couch on nights her mother didn't have evening patrol.

" _Mama is so cool!"_ Her sister would persist, arms raising up as stones from her rock collection levitated and began to smolder. _"I want to be a hero when I grow up too!"_

" _Hana, you're going to burn things,"_ Ria would whine, ducking before one of the rocks got too close and singed her hair _again_.

Her mother simply laughed and placed her hands on both of their heads. _"A hero and a dancer, huh? Your father and I are very lucky that we each have one of you that took after us. Both of those jobs are very hard though, so it's not too late to change them, okay?"_

" _I never will," Ria would say stubbornly._

" _Me too!"_

Then, a few years later, musical theatre worked its way into Ria's life.

It had always been there. She'd seen many plays and had enjoyed many songs and stories. It only became a really big part of her life when one of her classes at school decided to hold a play. Ria had never fancied herself an actress. She was an even worse singer.

But, her father encouraged her to try auditioning for a part, as opposed to being in the background or doing production work. Always curious and eager to try different forms of performing, Ria agreed.

She didn't get the main role, but she _did_ get to play a fairy that had one scene and two lines in a song.

And it was enough. In the flurry of rehearsals, costume fittings, and singing practices, Ria fell in love once again. Her dad watched it happen with fondness.

Every time Ria would come to him in the theatre, she would pester Kaito to run lines with her or play the song she was to perform on the piano. He'd tell her that he was busy or that she had to finish her homework first, but at some point in the night, he would always relent.

He'd go down to the orchestra pit when all the performers and staff had gone home, and he'd play her the song. In the echoing theatre, slightly out of tune and without a microphone, Ria and her father would sing the entire song together save for the two lines she would be performing. She sang those alone.

The night of the play eventually came, and her family sat in the audience of their small school auditorium. Her mother had begged a sidekick to switch her evening patrol with her, and her father had given Hana a coloring book to entertain herself with before the play had started.

When Ria finally came out on stage, she was dressed in a silver dress, some strap-on butterfly wings and an obscene amount of body glitter. She was wheeled in on a cart during her speaking scene to simulate flying, then brought back to stage later on to sing during the finale. When the play finally ended and they were in the midst of a curtain call, she heard applause.

Years later, Ria would remember that feeling well. The warmth and happiness that filled her chest when she saw people smiling for their show, when she saw her mother and father cheering the loudest for her. Pride filled her up like she'd never felt before.

Performing art was her entire life.

From then on, her life had become a whirlwind. She'd take dance classes, singing lessons, and acting workshops at least once a week. Her parents had told her that as long as she kept her grades up, did her chores, and slept at a reasonable hour, she would be allowed to take all her classes. During the summers, she would be allowed to audition in plays or perform in recitals. At this point, her mom had gotten a bit lower in her hero rankings, but she was still high enough to make a decent living. Her father's theatre, however, continued to thrive. Pretty soon, Ria would often have to go up to the backstage lighting fixtures to watch shows because Kaito usually sat in the reserved seat and because the rest of the theatre was sold out.

Looking back, Ria would call this the happiest period in her life. Surrounded with art and a loving family, she could want for nothing.

In her fourteen years of life, Ria Hikari had never once thought of becoming a hero.

Then one day, on her little sister's sixth birthday, she did.

* * *

The dreams attacked her every night. Sometimes, she'd wake up screaming. On most days, however, she was paralyzed in fearful silence. But they always came.

Her eyes fluttered opened, mouth gasping for breath as the fairy lights hanging from her ceiling came into view.

It was Kanazawa-sensei this time. They were back at Natsukashii's campus, and Ria was unearthing her homeroom teacher from the rubble. Except, this time, Kanazawa-sensei was alive—begging Ria to save her, cursing her for being weak. An arm, amputated from its elbow reached out to Ria, and… and…

Her trembling hand reached up to touch her sweaty forehead, eyes squinting shut. Ria shuddered, shaking the thought out of her mind. _It was just a nightmare_ , she reminded herself. _That's all it was._

Wearily, she reached out to grab her phone, eyes narrowing in frustration. She sighed. It was early, but not nearly enough for her to fall back asleep. _As if I could do that anyway._ A low groan rumbled in the back of her throat in frustration. Tiredly, she got up from bed and made it up again. There was about a half hour left until the sun came up, and for a while, she contemplated what she would do with her time.

Making up her mind, she went over to her closet to grab her uniform and tiptoed out the door and down the elevator to shower.

She returned a few minutes later, clad in her uniform. By then, the sun was beginning to rise, and she began to gather sunlight into her body as she tied a black ribbon in her hair. Deciding that it would be best to leave before everyone got up, she grabbed a water bottle and an egg sandwich she'd gotten at the convenience store, placing them in her bag before picking it up and heading out the door.

"Good morning, Hikari!"

As she exited the elevator, her eyes drifted over to and caught sight to a familiar head of blue hair as her class representativeve walked out of the common area. "Good morning, Iida." She offered him a friendly smile. "You're up early."

"Oh, Hikari! You're awake too?" Midoriya chimed in, walking out of the kitchen with a broom. "I guess you're an early riser as well."

"Midoriya," she acknowledged in mild surprise, "Why are you awake so early? I thought your house arrest was not finished for another two days. "

He flashed her a sheepish grin, reaching to scratch the back of his head. "We figured that we could get work done earlier this way. I'll get to study and train around the dorm afterwards."

"Oh," Ria nodded to herself. _No time to waste and relax, huh?_ "Well, that's very nice. Do your best."

He grinned back at her, nodding. "I will!"

"Would you extras quiet down already?" A snarl came from farther into the living room. Grey eyes met with crimson as Bakugou scoffed at the sight of her. "Figures New Girl and Deku would be out here."

"Bakugou," she said in acknowledgment.

"It's too fucking early for this shit." His palms crackled threateningly, and Ria's eyes narrowed as her gaze locked onto them. "Either shut up, or I'll give you some _real_ noise."

"I see you're not a morning person," she commented dryly, earning a scowl from him. He pointed a feather duster at her threateningly.

"You've got something to say?"

Iida held his hands out in robotic gestures. "Bakugou! Please refrain from getting into any more fights during your house arrest!"

"She's the one that started it, Four Eyes!"

"It's alright," she sighed. It really _was_ much too early for this kind of commotion. "I was just on my way out."

Midoriya tilted his head in curiosity. "Where are you going, Hikari?"

"I'm just going for a walk," she answered. Holding her palm up, Midoriya watched as an orb of light manifested itself from the sunlight streaming in from the window. It floated into Ria's palm, and she closed her fingers over it. "I usually go out early to recharge my quirk. It's cheaper and more eco-friendly to get it from natural sources."

"Wow!" Midoriya said, eyes lighting up. He rested his free hand on his chin in thought. "I guess that means that you can kill birds with one stone; train your quirk to absorb more and more every day and recharge it every morning just in case. Though, now that I think about it, you can also train your quirk to convert the energy faster and more efficiently so that in battle, you could take less time to absorb light energy and therefore are able to attack faster. All of this is speculative, of course, since I have yet to see you fight and your battle strategies and ultimate moves are still unknown. If your small battle with Kacchan last night is any indication, you seem to be partial to blinding people with your abilities. Your reflexes are also pretty fast, now that I think about it—"

"Shut the fuck up, Deku!" Bakugou yelled, "Nobody has time for your damn muttering today."

Midoriya jumped, his long tangent coming to a halt. "O-oh! Sorry!"

"You seem to do that quite a bit," Ria observed, slightly amused.

"I-it's just a habit that I do," Midoriya said, laughing shyly, "I really like studying quirks."

"I think it's a very valuable skill to have," she commented honestly, "You did give some very valid points in your just analysis now. The one last night too."

Midoriya flushed slightly at the praise. "Thanks! I think your quirk is really interesting."

"Thank you."

Bakugou grunted. "I thought you were going to fucking leave already, New Girl. Are you that stupid that you can't even do what you _just said_ you'd fucking do?"

"Right," she responded coolly, flashing him a smile. He glared at her. "I'll get going."

"I shall leave with you!" Iida chimed in, and Ria spared him a curious glance.

"Where are _you_ going this morning, Iida?" she asked walking towards the entrance and fishing out her school shoes from their container.

He followed behind her and began stuffing his feet into his shoes as well. "To the classroom! As the class representative, it is imperative for me to ensure that our facility for studying is in top condition before our lessons!"

She tipped her head at him. "We had cleaning duty yesterday, though, didn't we?"

"Just as well!" He said loudly, making more robotic hand gestures. "It is still important to check that all things are in order."

"I wonder if I ever sounded like that…"

"What was that?"

She shook her head at him. "Nothing." As her hand grasped the doorknob, she turned back to Midoriya who had been sweeping a fair distance away from them. "Bye, Midoriya!"

"Bye guys! See you tonight!"

"Goodbye, Bakugou."

"Just fucking _leave_ already."

* * *

"You will find that U.A. has many facilities that can be used for training, exercise, or simply walking. This can only be done before and after curfew hours, of course. Some places, such as the Unforeseen Joint Facility, may only be used during hero classes. Others, such as the pool, can be used any time but need special permission," Iida explained, "We had a very refreshing training session there once."

They had taken a much longer way to the campus that morning, Iida showing her various spots around the school. Ria had already seen some of U.A. during her tour with Hound Dog, but that morning was not nearly enough time for her to go through the entirety of the massive school. She found that she still had a lot to discover.

Something caught her eyes in one of the nearby training fields. That one seemed to be open to all students, considering that there were no signs on the high chain link fence. Many martial arts dummies were lined across the ground. Her eyes squinted to get a better look.

Iida followed her gaze. "Ah! I see you've noticed the Basics Martial Arts field!" he said proudly, "I have heard that it provides a sufficient starting point to many people in the hero department that wish to practice more close combat fighting styles."

"I think someone is training there now, actually," Ria noted, walking a bit nearer to the fence.

She spotted a boy on one of the farthest sides of the field from them, wearing his gym uniform. Unruly purple hair blew in the wind as palms collided with parts of the training dummy in front of him. Huge bags shadowed underneath his eyes, which narrowed with the effort.

"Ah, good morning Shinso!" Iida called, giving a robotic salute to him. Finally noticing them, the boy regarded them both with a slightly annoyed, if not completely blank expression. His eyes landed on her and lingered for a moment before he nodded and continued to train.

"He does not seem to be too happy to see us," Ria said.

"Keep up the good work!" Iida said again before they began to walk away. "That was Shinso Hitoshi. He's from the general department, but he has stated an interest in joining the hero department!"

"Well, he seems to be working hard," she commented thoughtfully, "Everyone seems to be working hard here."

"Of course!" Iida said with a proud grin on his face. "We are students of U.A! It is our sacred duty not to waste the educational opportunities that we are offered and to maintain the standards and image of the school."

" _One day, we will make our school known to the world_ …" A voice in the back of her head said.

Ria smiled, looking away from him. "You're quite impressive, Iida."

He paused, looking confused. But Iida nodded all the same. "Thank you very much, Hikari!"

* * *

Sometime later, she and Iida parted ways, and Ria was left to wander around U.A.'s grounds once again. It was very quiet that morning, and there was hardly anyone around.

U.A, as she found out, had a lot of quieter spots to hang around in. Once she had walked enough, she went to sit down at a fairly secluded part of the school. It was close enough that she could see the school building but far enough that she edged towards the forest. Along this path, there was a series of benches that were lined up and led to other areas. She had perched herself on one of them.

Ria stuffed the wrappings of her now-finished sandwich back into her bag and checked the time. There were a few minutes left before she needed to head to class, so she allowed herself a moment to just sit.

This place was quite beautiful, she decided. Behind her was the school building, but in front of her stretched out trees as far as her eyes could see. She doubted that the forest in front of her was as big as it appeared, but to her, it looked like it stretched on forever.

In the quiet of the morning, she allowed her mind to go blank. Ria had never really given much thought into meditating, but as her head focused on the trees, the grass, or the sunlight that she absorbed in her body, she understood why people did it.

Almost hesitantly, she pulled a notebook out of her bag. It was black and had constellations decorating its cover, but it was also slightly worn now. Someone had given her that notebook a few years ago, and it had remained perfectly untouched until around two weeks ago. Opening it, she went past the pages she had already written on and stopped at an empty one.

The pen she brought out stilled on the page.

 _Dear Hibiki,_ she eventually wrote, _It's my second day in U.A today. You'd love it here. It is really big, bigger than I thought possible. And you were right. It is everything you dreamed of and more. I have my first hero informatics class and my first free-time training session in a few hours._

She went on about how her days were going, how her new homeroom teacher carried a sleeping bag everywhere, how she was slowly adjusting to staying in a dorm. All things positive about her days so far.

Eventually, she checked the time on her phone and found it was around time to head to class.

She paused, conflicting thoughts plaguing her mind as she wrote down a few last words.

 _I wish you were here._

* * *

"We missed you at breakfast this morning, Hikari-chan," Yaoyorozu said as Ria sat down beside her.

"Yeah!" Kaminari added, some leftover toast hanging in his mouth. "Where did you go?"

Ria smiled back, bringing the appropriate notebook and pens out for the first class. "I take walks every morning to recharge my quirk."

"Come to think about it," Sero said, hands resting on the back of his neck, "Didn't Iida leave early this morning too?"

Tsuyu chimed in, "He did. I guess you two must have run into each other this morning."

"Mm," Ria hummed absently, nodding to the bespectacled boy in acknowledgment. He caught her gaze and offered her a half smile before loudly telling Uraraka to hurry and sit down. "Iida was kind enough to show me some parts of the school today."

A beat of silence followed, and Ria scanned some of her notes to review a few of the lessons that were taught yesterday. _English isn't too bad. I need to brush up on Hero Ethics and History though…_

She heard a loud slam and looked up just in time to see Kaminari and Mineta jump out of their seats and rush to Iida, who berated them to sit down. They each grasped one of his shoulders and pulled him back and forth, Iida's head bobbing violently at the movement. At some point, dark blue hair hit the window as the two dragged their class representative out of his seat and pinned him to the opposite wall.

They whispered angrily to him. "You were out with Hikari before school hours _alone_?" Kaminari said.

"No one would be walking around campus that early in the morning!" Mineta said, chewing on the end of his necktie in obvious envy, "What the hell did you two do?"

"I simply showed her the various facilities of U.A!" Iida protested, "And sit down, you two!"

" _Oh no_ , you are not going to tell us what to do right now," Kaminari said, jabbing a finger really close to Iida's glasses, "And that smile you just gave her! That's not good at all, Iida! Our class president can't be a _perv!_ "

"I-I'm not!"

"You and Midoriya are the same, dammit!"

Ria tilted her head at the group in interest. She couldn't make out much of what they were saying, as most of it seemed like angry murmuring, but both Kaminari and Mineta seemed to be mad at Iida for reasons she couldn't understand.

"They seem to be very energetic this morning," she observed in confusion. Beside her, Yaoyorozu pressed a hand to her cheek in embarrassment, despite not being able to hear the conversation either.

"Oh dear."

"It's too early for this," Ojiro grumbled from his seat in the front.

Kirishima and Sero laughed sheepishly, seeming to hear the entire argument that was taking place. Sato waved a big hand at her in dismissal. "Don't worry about it," he assured her as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "It's stupid."

"Stupid isn't even the half of it," Ria's eyes darted to the front of the class where she saw floating scarves and a sinister-looking Aizawa at the doorway, "Especially if they can't even get to their seats in time for class."

"I-I apologize!" Iida exclaimed, looking aghast. He grabbed the other two boys by their collars. "Both of you! To your seats now, please!" This time, there were no protests as all of them ran to their respective desks.

Aizawa sighed, already feeling tired. "Now that everyone's paying attention," he said gruffly, "We're going to be talking about what's going to be happening at today's training session."

Ria perked up, back straightening in interest. She had been anticipating this for some time now. _My first time training with U.A. students_ , she thought, _I wonder how different their training regimen is._

"The decision on your internships hasn't been made yet," Aizawa continued, "But if we decide to push through with allowing you first years to participate, then we'll need to prepare for that as soon as possible."

He looked down at a few notes on his desk. "Today's informatics class is going to talk about the different protocols that you'll have to face when you're out there on the field. We'll be going through various rescue scenarios and strategies. In later classes, we'll be incorporating this further into physical training exercises."

Aizawa looked gazed over at them. "But for today, your training is solely going to focus on improvement. Think about the areas that you might need more work in. When you're out on the field, these could be the difference between saving someone and putting them in harm's way."

And didn't she know it. Ria nodded stiffly, eyes flashing. Aizawa glanced at her thoughtfully before turning back to the rest of the class.

"Any questions?"

* * *

"Hikari!" Kirishima called out when he spotted a familiar head of ginger hair. Ria stopped walking, lunch tray in her hands. She offered him a small smile as grey eyes landed on him, and he grinned back at her in return.

He gestured to his table where Sero and Kaminari had already been sitting. "Wanna sit with us? I can share some of my food with you!"

"Yeah!" Sero said, "It'll be fun!"

But Ria shook her head at them, an apologetic look on her face. "I'm actually looking for a few other people, but maybe tomorrow?"

"Aww, well alright," Kirishima said, but he called out a second later having gotten an idea, "How about you be my training partner later today then? Mine is on house arrest right now."

Ria blinked, slightly taken aback by the request. But she nodded all the same. "Alright then."

He flashed her another grin as she began to walk away. Kaminari looked at him, unimpressed. "I thought I was supposed to be your training partner today."

Kirishima raised an eyebrow at his friend. "You didn't tell me that."

"It was implied!"

* * *

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

Ria watched as three people snapped their gazes to her. Immediately, she saw the apprehension fade in each of her tour group members' eyes when they realized it was her that had spoken to them. A look of unspoken understanding seemed to pass through their faces. Inoue seemed to snap out of it first. Tucking a stray strand of purple hair behind her ear, she smiled sheepishly at Ria.

"Of course," Inoue said, gesturing to the empty seat beside her.

Ria placed her tray onto the table and sat down. "Thank you."

Her eyes took a brief scan at the occupants of their table. Across from her, Maeda and Kimura had already begun to ignore her—and each other, for that matter. Their hulking figures seemed to struggle to share their side of the table, and Ria wondered if they had chosen to sit beside each other on purpose.

Kimura's food was piled high on his tray, and his chopsticks looked tiny in his pudgy hand. Meanwhile, Maeda seemed to simply pick at his food, messy brown hair casting over his eyes. His mouth was twisted into what seemed like a permanent scowl. Inoue looked to be the most at ease among the three, though she remained silent all the same.

"How has school been for you all?" Ria asked, picking up some of her chicken, "Where's Chiba?"

Maeda scoffed in reply but nudged his head in a direction in answer, and Ria's eyes drifted until she caught sight of a familiar enough head of hot pink hair. A few tables away, Chiba—the last of their transfer group—seemed to be having a good enough time with whomever she was sitting with; she was laughing, at least. _It's not real_ , Ria knew. But that was fine. At least she was putting herself out there.

Inoue rested her chin on her hand, her gaze traveling to the same person before turning back to Ria thoughtfully. "The classes are a bit harder than I thought they would be, but so far, things aren't so bad," she answered.

"She means except for the fact that everyone looks at us like fucking aliens," Maeda spat. For a moment, he lifted his head and shot her a conflicting glare. "We're the talk of the town." His voice took on an exaggerated enthusiasm. _Especially you,_ he seemed to imply.

"Ignore him," Inoue said, rolling her eyes. Kimura raised his head but said nothing.

But Ria nodded in understanding. She could feel the eyes around them, could hear some of the hushed sounds that people made in an attempt to hide the words from them. This was not new.

She'd felt like this her whole life and was used to the stares. Whether it was because she was on stage, or because her mom was in the news, or because kids in her middle school class had found out about her sister's death, or because she had been on the news for defending a blown up high school, Ria was used to being watched.

It didn't mean that the rest of them were.

"It's only the second day," Inoue said, though she didn't seem fully convinced at her own words. "It'll go away."

"Yeah, _right_."

The purple haired 3rd year ignored him entirely this time, sending Ria a reassuring glance. "Feel free to sit with us at lunch when you want to. We don't talk much, but we're here."

Maeda scoffed, muttering under his breath. "She looks like she's doing pretty fucking fine to me."

Ria pretended not to hear him. She gave her senpai a small smile and thanked her, but as they spent the rest of their lunch period simply eating in silence, she was certain that all of them knew she would not be sitting there again tomorrow.

* * *

"It's a nice suit, Ria-chan" Asui said, and Ria blinked. Realizing she'd been staring, she turned back to Asui and smiled. Around her, the other girls were changing out of their uniforms and into their hero costumes, the chatter lilting around her. Ria stepped away from the mirror to allow other people to use it, hands going into her dark amber hair to braid it.

"It's actually my first time wearing it," she explained, making sure to keep her braid tight as she weaved it, "U.A. offered to make me a new one." _Also, my old one was destroyed._

As far as costumes went though, this one was very different from her old one. Whereas her previous one used to be white and somewhat looser on her body, her new suit was black and snug on her. It was made of much sturdier material as well, and a lot of her equipment was far more advanced than it had been before. _U.A must have a bigger budget for these sort of things._ White electroluminescent panels stuck seemlessly to both the front and back of her short sleeved top and on the sides of her shorts.

Finally finished with her braid, she picked up the belt she'd been given and with it, the bag, small weapons, and equipment that were attached to it. She tugged at it slightly to make sure nothing came off when she was moving around. Satisfied, she opened a zipper and brought out a bottle of sunscreen.

"You're putting on quite a lot," Yaoyorozu observed as Ria slathered it onto the exposed areas in her body.

"It's just a precaution," Ria answered as she finished. She walked around to dry her arms and legs, hoping that it would settle into her skin soon. Kneeling down, she went to tighten the laces on her combat boots, as they didn't seem to be as snug as she wanted at first. "I've already applied some during lunch, but it is very easy to get sunburned with my quirk, so I'm reapplying."

"I guess that makes sense," Jiro said, shrugging her jacket on, "Considering you're literally attracting the sun to you."

"What's that thing on your back though?" Uraraka had asked, and Ria glanced at the mirror over her shoulder seeing the folded black weapon that was securely attached to a plate on her back. Reaching behind her, she pulled it from its notch. She still marveled at how light it was in her hands and how compact it was to be able to just attach to her top. Clicking a button, she blinked as it unfolded itself in seconds. An excited glint flashed through her eyes.

"It's a bow," Ashido said in awe, watching as Ria looked into the sight and tugged at the string experimentally.

"There are some situations that occur wherein it is smarter not to use my quirk," Ria explained, eyes still trained on the bow in her hands. She held it out to the rest of the girls to see, who had come closer by then. "Stealth attacks in the dark, for example. Having something like this helps turn the tides a little."

"No arrows though?" Ochako inquired, confused. Ria hummed to herself and pushed a button on the left side of her belt. Immediately, arrows shot out from her belt where her hip was. Taking one off, she examined it in amazement and pressed on a part of the shaft, below the arrowhead. In a second, the arrow had collapsed itself into what almost looked like a sniper bullet with black fledgling.

"And I didn't think it was possible," Ria breathed out, "U.A. is amazing."

"That looks badass!" Jiro exclaimed, " _Please_ tell me you're good at shooting that thing."

"I've trained at it," Ria answered, though she pressed a few buttons again and retracted the arrows on her belt, as well as folding her bow back into its compact form. She returned it to its place on her back. "It's mostly a last resort though. My quirk is still my main weapon, so I usually don't have to use this much."

"Weapons are very interesting to me," Yaoroyozu commented, resuming her task of retying her hair up. "I use them often, but many heroes don't use them a lot, unless their quirk is not very suitable for combat or unless they have a glaring weakness."

"They do seem really useful though," Ochako commented, "I've always wondered if I should have a sword or something."

"I still think it's better to focus on our quirks," Ria shrugged, "I just…want to be prepared."

"Nothing wrong with a back-up plan, I guess," Jiro said.

Putting the rest of her things inside her locker, Ria glanced over at the clock on the wall. "We should get going," she noted, "We don't want to be late."

"There's still time," Tsuyu assured her, and Ochako giggled.

"You sound a little like Iida," she said.

Ria offered a sideways grin. "I like rules."

* * *

For the past few months, the fact that Natsukashii High School's hero program was considerably smaller than most schools had not really crossed Ria's mind as often as it used to. U.A. had always been a standard that they all tried to achieve, but in recent months, Ria had forgotten all about it. There were achievements made, and she had always looked ahead, working harder to push herself each day. Before long, she found herself at the top of the class, in both her class scores and training scores.

It was very evident now that she no longer held that title.

 _If you're the strongest in the room,_ she thought as she fired a blast at Kirishima, _find another room._

The heel of her boot collided hard with his chest, and she winced as pain shot through her foot. He shot her a sharp-toothed grin as he made to lunge at her. She spun out of the way fast enough to get behind him and fire a blast to his shoulder.

Her eyes narrowed when she found that it barely left a scratch on him.

But she smirked. _U.A. students are something else._

His sharpened arm swung back to karate chop her in the face. Ria dropped down quickly, her knees sliding forward in the dirt so that she was in front of him again. Jumping back to avoid the knee that flew towards her face, she distanced herself slightly as he barraged her with attacks. She dodged each one carefully.

Holding both her hands out, a powerful blast ripped itself out of her palms and shot straight into him. Kirishima placed his arms in front of him and took it on headfirst, slowly pushing back against it. Ria grit her teeth as she put more force into the blast, watching as his body began to smoke up against her attack.

 _More,_ Ria thought as he began pushing farther.

"You're pretty strong," Kirishima grunted from behind his guarding arms, "So it's a good thing I make an awesome shield."

And then he began moving faster, until he was almost running at her. Ria's brows furrowed in concentration, pushing even more power into the blast of light that erupted from her palms. Her whole body began to push back, almost like he was physically shoving her. Feet that had been planted firmly on the ground started to move, creating small trails in the dirt.

"Shields break too," she ground out. And she could see it as well—the edges of his arms began to soften and curve back into normal flesh. Kirshima grunted, shooting her a wry grin. With an indignant cry, he barreled forward, cutting through her light as his quirk began to lose steam.

Finally reaching her, he reached forward and snatched her wrists. Ria stepped away, her huge blast gone and spent by now. She managed to turn away fast enough to release her hands from his grasp, but she brought an arm up to shield herself as he tried to slam his fist into the side of her head. Pain shot up her arm. For a split second, Kirishima paused, a look of confusion passing through his face. However, it was gone only a moment later. She watched as he brought down a sharpened hand onto her. Immediately, her own hand shot up, an orb of light attached to it.

At the last second before impact, she stopped. He did as well. They stood together then, panting. He held her throat in his hardened hand, ready to crush it, while she held a burning orb that was ready to explode against his.

Kirishima beamed at her as he released her neck from his grip, panting with effort. Ria stepped back as well. "That…was so manly!" he exclaimed, holding two hardened fists in front of him.

"You've got a pretty awesome quirk if you can dish out that much firepower," he continued, though the look of confusion on his face returned when he brought up the hand he had used to grab at her. "Why is your skin so cold though? It's like ice!"

"It's a side effect to my quirk," Ria explained in between pants of air, "When I let out large amounts of light, the heat from my body escapes with the blast. The opposite happens when I absorb light though."

"Must suck during winters. Couldn't you freeze to death or something?"

Ria shrugged. "I've gotten used to it." She reached up to wipe the sweat off her forehead, smiling back at him. "Your quirk is very strong as well. I did not have many defensive measures apart from avoiding your attacks, so the very fact that you can just _take_ my attacks is an advantage for you."

"You dodge pretty well though," Kirishima said, "Your fighting style is kind of different."

"Different?"

"Yeah, it's kind of flowy…" he rubbed his chin in thought, thinking of a proper word. "It's really manly!"

"Um, thank you?" she said.

He went on to rub the back of his neck in thought. "I think I need to work on my speed," he said thoughtfully, "I might be a good shield, but I should avoid direct hits like that if I can."

"And I need to improve on more powerful attacks," Ria said, peering down at the bruising spot on her arm from when she caught his punch. "Both with my quirk and with close combat. Hitting you hurts."

He laughed heartily. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Stretching the aches out of her arms, Ria looked around the area. As she expected, U.A's training fields were huge, bigger than she anticipated it would be. Scanning around the room, she took note of everyone as they trained, watched as Tokoyami clawed at Shoji with Dark Shadow, as Jiro avoided a spray of acid that Ashido shot at her, and how Yaoyorozu conjured multiple swords from her stomach to attack Todoroki with. From a distance away, Aoyama shot a laser that would have sent him into a wall had he not turned his body abruptly.

It was almost surreal to see the events before her. For a long time, U.A. had seemed like a distant dream to her, like the hero students that went there were so far away. It was not that she put the school on a pedestal, but she could not deny the results it has made to affect their society. Ria liked to study. She researched the faces around her and had seen them on TV, in articles, or in internet videos.

Seeing them all train around her now… It did not feel real.

Whether or not that was a good thing, she was not sure.

"You Class A Students are amazing," she said breathlessly, eyes widening as she saw Todoroki conjure a trail of flame from his arm unexpectedly.

"What are you talking about?" Kirishima said in confusion. "You're in Class A too! That means you're one of us now."

She turned to him then, facing him with surprise on her face. He grinned at her. Ria's breath caught in her throat, and suddenly, she felt like all the air had left her lungs. Her lips parted to speak, but she found that no words came out.

Kirishima held out a fist for her to bump, and she simply looked at it as a dull pain began to bloom in her chest.

"I—"

"Alright!" Aizawa said, catching their attention. "That's enough for today. Everyone come over here."

Ria let out a small breath of relief as Kirishima lowered his fist. Together, they began to walk up to where everyone had gathered. She gasped softly when she saw a familiar figure enter through the doorway to stand by Aizawa.

"All Might!" Kirishima exclaimed from beside her, waving at him. The blonde hero held up his own hand in greeting.

"Hello, young students!"

 _Japan's no. 1—former no.1 hero,_ she thought with a measure of recognition and awe. It was still a little strange to see him in a much smaller, weaker-looking form, but she knew it was him. The whole _world_ knew it was him, now that he retired. _That's Japan's former symbol of peace._

"I think a lot of us looked the same way you did when we saw him for the first time," Kirishima chuckled at her.

"Eh?" Kaminari said in a teasing tone, "I guess you're a big fan?"

"Who _isn't_ a fan of All Might?" Ria answered with a small smile.

Kaminari grinned, "Fair enough."

"You three, quiet," Aizawa said to them. He began to list a few last minute announcements about classes and went on to talk about a few observations he made on all of them, as well as feedback. All Might, who had apparently been watching them from a different room, gave a few comments on each one of them as well, providing insight where it was needed. "Don't depend too much on dodging, or you'll just tire yourself out. Train your quirk to deflect different types of attacks," they had told her. She nodded, storing their notes in her head for later, and they moved on to the next student.

"That's it for today," Aizawa said as he finished talking to Mineta, "You are all dismissed for today. See you all tomorrow." They all chorused their goodbyes to their homeroom teacher as he left, clipboard and yellow sleeping bag bundled under his arm.

All Might remained, and a few students gathered around him. Some people simply said their hellos and went straight to the locker rooms to shower. Ria hung back a little to introduce herself, and soon enough, All Might's gaze landed on her. He smiled at her.

Noticing this, Uraraka pushed Ria forward enthusiastically, practically shoving Iida and Todoroki to the sides. "All Might! This is our new classmate."

"Yes, I've heard quite a lot about you!" He said in a booming voice that almost betrayed the image of his skinny body. "Very nice to meet you, Young Hikari!"

"The pleasure is all mine," Ria said, smiling back easily. "I've watched your videos since I was a child. It is very nice to meet you in person."

A few pleasantries were exchanged, and their small group conversed for a few minutes before Iida chimed in, "Shall we head to the locker rooms then?" He proposed.

Todoroki nodded. "Okay."

"Sounds good!" Uraraka said, "Ria-chan, some of the girls and I we are thinking about going to a café today. Do you want to come with us?"

Ria waited three seconds, hoping that she did not seem too put off by the idea. "Actually, I was hoping to finish unpacking today, so I don't think I'll be able to go."

"Aww," Uraraka pouted, "Come on, it'll be fun! I can help you unpack afterwards if you want."

Ria smiled. "That's very nice of you, but you don't have to do that. You guys go ahead. I'll go to the next one."

"I'm going to hold you to that," Uraraka said, grinning. "Alright, should we go and change then?"

"Actually, Young Hikari," All Might interjected, "I was hoping I could see you in my office after you change back into your uniform."

"Oh, is something wrong?" Ria asked in confusion.

"Not at all!" All Might said with a laugh, "But it is my sworn duty as a teacher of U.A. to check up on students, especially new transfers in the hero department."

 _Transfer, he means_. But Ria simply nodded, smiling. "Of course."

"It should not take too much time," All Might assured. He held a hand up to wave goodbye before he began to walk off. "Have a good day, students!"

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want us to wait for you, Ria-chan?" Uraraka asked her, Iida and Todoroki by her side. Ria shook her head slowly, her lips quirking up in a serene smile.

"I don't want to keep you," she said gently, "You still have to meet the girls to go to that café."

"All Might said it wouldn't take long," Todoroki said coolly.

Uraraka bounced slightly. "He's right!"

"It should not be any trouble at all!" Iida said, holding a robotic hand in the air.

"I'll be fine," she persisted, waving her hands out in front of her in what she hoped was reassurance, "I'll see you all at the dorms."

"Alright then," Uraraka finally agreed, "I'm not going to forget about that outing you promised though. We can go out with everyone."

"We shall see you back at Heights Alliance then!" Iida exclaimed, and Ria nodded back at Todoroki as he regarded her for a moment.

"See you then."

She waved at them as they turned their backs to leave her, letting out a small sigh. The smile from her lips faded as she walked towards the teacher's lounge. As she was about to knock, the door opened to reveal another person.

"Figures that you'd be here too," a voice said roughly. Ria's looked up to see angry brown orbs as Maeda stared down at her scornfully. She blinked in surprise. _He was not as angry during lunch time._

"What do you mean?" she asked him.

"You're the _hero_ transfer, aren't you?" he said, shoving past her to get through the door, "It makes sense that they want to make sure you're doing well."

She watched with narrow eyes and a thoughtful expression as he walks down the hall, away from her. _What was that about?_

"Young Hikari!" The door next to the teacher's lounge opened, revealing All Might. "Come in please." His smile was wide and friendly as he invited her inside. He sat at a table that had two cups and a tea pot and began pouring drinks for both of them.

"You wanted to see me?" Ria said after thanking him for the tea.

"This is simply a check-in," All Might answered, "I have been assigned to ensure that you are transitioning smoothly into student life at U.A."

 _Wouldn't it be more likely for Aizawa-sensei to be assigned this task?_ She thought skeptically, but she nodded all the same. "Thank you for your concern."

He let out a hearty laugh. "My pleasure!" he said, "How are you finding U.A. so far?"

"It's very impressive," she answered honestly, "The hero classes have exceeded my expectations so far, and it's nice that there are a lot of facilities to train in."

"I'm glad to hear it!" All Might exclaimed, "And your classmates?"

Ria nodded, flashes of spiky red hair during training, glasses glinting in the morning light of her walk before school, and a hopeful smile from a certain round-faced girl—among other things—coming to mind. "They've all been very kind and welcoming."

All Might seemed happy enough with her response, a glint of affection passing through his face. A wide-toothed grin spread across his face. "I expected nothing less. I hope you all form tight bonds of friendship!"

Ria paused at that, eyes trailing down to the tea in her hands. Careful not to let the small smile on her face falter, she picked it up tentatively and took a sip. She hummed in response but otherwise said nothing.

All Might seemed to watch her reaction thoughtfully for a moment before he turned his gaze to the side, towards the window.

A beat of silence passed between them, one that really didn't last long at all, and yet it felt endless to her. She folded her hands in her lap and observed the man in front of her. The affection had long gone from his expression, replaced now with something that she didn't think she could ever understand. A million different things seemed to go through his head then, and at that moment, she could see the image of the no.1 hero in him. Ria had been amazed when she first met him; she remembered the videos of him in his muscular form, saving thousands of people at a time. _But this looks more like the real thing_.

A sigh escaped All Might, though he didn't look at her. Ria straightened slightly in anticipation.

"I'll be honest and say that many of us at U.A were surprised to get any applicants at all when we announced that we would be accepting new students for the semester. Two months is not a lot of time to mourn," All Might started, "Many of us were skeptical of recruiting anymore hero transfers at all, but after much deliberation, it was decided that anyone who still wished to become a hero after such circumstances should be given a chance to at least take the test."

"I'm glad you did," Ria found herself saying. _I don't know what I would have done if..._ "I think it provided some people with the opportunity to remember why we wanted to be heroes in the first place. I'm sure it gave some people hope to see many schools reach out, U.A. especially."

All Might seemed to consider this answer. "I suppose that's all we can do for now as a school," he said, "It was a great tragedy, what happened to you all. I am deeply sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," Ria responded genuinely, though the answer had become second nature to her by now.

"As heroes, losses of comrades are all too common in our line of work," he continued, though Ria's hands clasped tighter together in her lap. She tried to fight the indignant flare in her chest, the one that made her want to ignore talking about this topic. _He is just trying to help_ , she reminded herself.

"I understand—"

"—But you are not a hero," All Might interjected quickly, "Not yet, anyway."

Ria stayed silent, and blue eyes the color of the sky stared her down. "For heroes, more common than sadness is often the frustration in not having been able to save people, regardless of whether there was anything we could have done."

 _Please_ , she thought to herself, though she didn't look away. _Please stop._

"This grief and anger often makes us do things we later regret," All Might continued.

Ria tipped her head back slightly. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I think you need to hear it," was her teacher's simple response. He seemed to consider his next words. "When I was around your age, I had the privilege of having someone to tell me these words."

 _You had the privilege…_ she repeated to herself slowly, before realization flickered through her brain. "You lost someone," she stated finally. It wasn't a question, and she could not even bring herself to feel surprised. It was a way of life, regardless of whether or not one was a hero.

He nodded, offering her half a smile in reassurance. "Quite a few people in this life of mine, actually. Being old will do that to you."

"You aren't old, All Might."

He laughed cheerfully at that, the sound bellowing around the room. "That's very nice of you to say."

"I'm sorry you lost people," Ria said quietly, seriously.

"Thank you. It was a long time ago, Young Hikari."

"That doesn't matter."

"I was very lucky," He said slowly, a careful edge to his voice, "I had people around me that supported me."

 _So that's what it is_. Ria turned her eyes away, picking up her tea once again to busy herself with the action.

"I don't think I'm doing anything I'll regret," she deflected immediately, "I think I'm trying my best to be careful, actually."

"Perhaps too careful."

Ria's brows furrowed slightly in confusion. "Pardon?"

And when she looked up again, she found him gazing sternly back at her. "It is not a sin to get closer to people while you are in mourning."

 _But it is._ She stared dumbly back at her teacher, feeling numb. Suddenly, a lump seemed to form in her throat. Ria cleared it immediately. "It is also not a sin to want to be alone," she reasoned.

"That is true," All Might acquiesced, "But do you? Want to be alone, that is."

" _Hikari-chan, aren't you proud of us?"_

Her lips parted to say something, but they closed just the same. Ria glanced away again, head bowing to allow dark amber hair to fall past grey eyes that flashed with a deep pain. All Might said nothing, and she was much too pre-occupied to notice him lean back in his seat, arms crossing against his chest. Ria could not see the look of understanding and mild satisfaction that formed on his face.

And for a moment, they simply sat there in each other's presence. He was not the former symbol of peace or the former no.1 hero of Japan. She was not the new hero transfer student at U.A. High School. At that moment, they were simply two people who understood what it meant to lose people they cared about.

* * *

She walked back to the dorms a little later, her body feeling heavier than it had ever been that day, even after training. All Might's words rang in her head.

"Do you want to be alone?" she asked herself in a faint whisper.

And she thought about them, all their faces, tried to remember them when they weren't all in coffins that lay sleeping in front of her. She tried to remember them as they were and not as they are. A few images came to mind, wisps of laughter and picnics and training…only to be replaced by mangled bodies and ghastly pale faces. Ria shoved the thoughts to the back of her mind.

She shook her head slowly. _It's better this way._

But she also thinks of others, a spiky ponytail whose wearer offers to help her with all school-related aspects, apple juice from a boy with eyes the color of rumbling clouds and cool seafoam, another boy with unkempt green hair and scarred arms that stretched out to carry garbage bags, laughter and _warmth_ that she felt absolutely detached from.

 _Do you want to be alone?_

Ria rubbed an invisible chill in her arms, trying to sooth down goosebumps.

She reached the dorm and absently pulled the front door open.

"Hikari!" a voice said as Ria was taking her shoes off. Midoriya looked back at her, Yaoyorozu and Sero near him. "You're back."

"Yes," she says almost stiffly, her lips turning up into a tight smile.

"Welcome back," Yaoyorozu said, beaming back pleasantly.

"Thank you."

 _Do you want to be alone?_

And for just one second, Ria allowed herself to think that maybe, just _maybe_ , she didn't know the answer to that question.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **I do not own BnHA**


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